Step to You

Summary: AU. It all started with a theft and the chanced meeting of Antonio Carriedo, heir of a rich company, and Lovino Vargas, an aspiring violinist; two men desperate for attention. A story of conspiracies clashing with loyalties in which trust is tested and love is formed. Spamano.

Romance/Drama/Humour

Disclaimer: Hetalia and any songs mentioned don't belong to me.

AN: Well h-hi there… Haha, it's nice to know you might be interested in reading this story of mine ^^ I've been wanting to write a Spamano fic for a while, haha, but there's so much school to worry about QAQ (but then don't we all? Have school to worry about I mean/shot)

Hmm, the first few chapters will seem misleadingly happy, let me tell you. It will get darker later on, so… yeah.

Hehe, so I'm not going to list the pairings here (though if you've been on my profile, you'll probably know who I might possibly include). Also, don't be surprised about some particular characters being used as (somewhat) part of the main cast! I just thought it would be interesting to try using them, haha.

And just so you know, I will be giving Spain a sort of Pirate!Spain personality with a bit of current Spain twist! Or—well, you'll see~ I just hope y'all will like this version of Spain.

Thanks to my editor/beta, Pyonn~ who is a (got to keep from barfing, got to keep from barfing…) geni-usdhfaisejfape (genius). She gave me a few more awesome ideas for this fic~

Anyways, I should shut up now, before I bore you people, so onto the story! I hope I don't disappoint! ^^

Antonio's POV

I had to lose him somewhere. Chilly air whipped across my face, the fog coming out of my mouth slightly obscuring my view as my feet pounded down the slippery sidewalk. I swiftly ran into an alleyway leading to God knows where. "Shit, how did he find me so fast today?"

All I had done was leave the House. Again.

It was starting to get dark, so it was hard to see where I was going (I really hoped I didn't run into a wall like last time. It took two weeks for that bump to heal!) Looking ahead, I saw what looked like a chained fence with garbage leaning against it. I continued heading towards it, as I saw the burly blond figure not too far off on the other side of the street intersection; the intersection I was on ten seconds ago. Sharp blue eyes focused on his prey and his face had a slight look of annoyance. His body showed no signs of exhaustion as he chased after me.

Just like yesterday. And the day before that… and the day before that…

Legs on fire, I slipped on some black ice as I approached the mound of trash.

Oh, but not three days ago. I actually stayed at the House to do my work that day, so ha!

"Shit!" I cursed, as my hands had become scratched from the fall. I scrambled to get up, and rushed to the mountain of garbage. As I started to climb the disgusting bags, a hand caught the back of my unzipped jacket and started to pull me down. I tried to resist, but the pull from the hand was more powerful than my grip on the loose garbage bags, and I started to slip towards the blond.

Not wanting to be caught so soon, I quickly shed my jacket (damn, it is cold today!), took a nearby bag of trash, and threw it at him. With the combined efforts of a jacket in his hands, and garbage in his face, I snickered and continued my climb on the garbage.

When I reached the top, I looked down at the unimpressed blond taking a banana off his head while cleaning disgusting garbage juices off his glasses, and stuck out my tongue at him before jumping down to the other side and continued to run.

"See ya later, Berwald!"

(ooooo)

After what I thought would be a good distance away from Sir Stinks-a-Lot, I slowed my pace and took in my surroundings. Strangely dressed people lined the streets, and various instruments playing at the same time could be heard around the area. Fluorescent signs shined advertisements of upcoming theatre shows, and there was a small group of teenagers having a dance off in the nearby park.

It seemed as if I were in the arts district now… interesting.

Everywhere I looked, there was something relating to the arts ranging from beautifully crafted snow sculptures in the park to the carefully placed lighting on the trees, strings of them in complementary colours.

As I started to walk down the sidewalk, I could feel people staring at me for not having a jacket, but I ignored them, hardly caring and wanting to enjoy my surroundings while I could. Berwald was probably going to find me within the next while or so. Since my recent (well, not really) rebellious streak, my mother opted out to hire a sort of… human dog… person.

I say human dog not to be mean, but that's what his job sort of is… whenever I ran off from home, he was sent to catch me and bring me back. Sort of like fetch, except with a bone that runs off on its own.

I sighed. Yes, it wasn't often that I got to go around this part of the city like this—or any other "poorer" areas of the city for that matter. My parents always wanted me to stay at the House or stay in the nicer, "richer" areas. They didn't want "the ways of the commoner" to influence me into doing things that would "tarnish the company name". Yeah… their words not mine.

Of course, being the spoiled child of a CEO, I didn't like being told what not to do, so I did the opposite of what they wanted by constantly running off from my duties in order to go around to these particular parts of the city, or pulling pranks with my best friends, Francis and Gilbert (who were also rich and spoiled children of wealthy companies – go figure).

Whenever I did escape from the House on my own, I always ended up walking aimlessly around the city, until Berwald came, threw me over his shoulder, and called my chauffer to bring me home. It was starting to become a routine really.

Yup, that's what my sad life comprised of day in and out; work, sitting in on meetings, getting to know other snobs… planning escapes (sometimes with Francis and Gilbert) and running off at the most inconvenient times in order to piss off my parents.

Sigh.

I envied the happy everyday people walking around carrying out their everyday routines. I wish I could have a simple life like them. They may not be rich like me, but at least they seemed… happy.

"Happy, huh?" I whispered to nobody in particular. The word sounded odd on my tongue, its use rare for me.

People considered me to have a good life and expected me to be happy about having money, but really… I wasn't. It was lonely actually. I may have parents, but they were always too busy to be bothered with me, and I have two best friends, but they had their own duties to fulfill rather than keep me company all day.

I wanted to be happy too. That would be really nice.

If you want it so much, then don't be a coward and find your happiness.

…

Stupid… inner voice…

Anyways! Enough with the pity party because thinking about all this was starting to get me annoyed… Now what did Francis tell me about the other day? Something about an amazing up-and-coming musician… and when did it get this cold?

Amidst my internal ramblings, I suddenly heard yelling coming from behind me.

"Hey! Give that back you fucker!"

I turned around to see two men running down the sidewalk a distance away. One had a case of some sort tucked under his arm. The other one was wearing a nice suit and running after him with sheets of paper clenched in one fist.

I stared at the approaching figures.

Huh.

I wonder what's in the case.

Of course, you wonder about the case but not about the running maniacs. OF COURSE.

My inner voice should really shut-up now…

"You're not going to get away with it, dammit!"

Hmm… it was too bad for the suited man, because the thief seemed to be a faster runner than him. Should I stop him…? Ah, but that would be really troublesome…

Isn't that what snobs say Toni? I thought you wanted to be more like the commoners – to BE a commoner. Wouldn't any good commoner – or person in general – help another in need?

Inner-me had a good point. But then again if I stopped them, it would cause a commotion and Berwald would surely find me…

During my internal debate, the two men came under the nearby streetlamp and I could see them a bit more clearly. The thief's hood blocked his face, but I could make out a triumphed smile on his face. The other man however, had a face contorted with anger, but also with desperation hidden beneath.

I guess that case meant something then. And… if my inner voice's logic made sense, then helping a fellow citizen would make me less of a spoiled man, and more of a "commoner" right? Because that's what common people do right? Help each other out when in need?

Because I know if it were my parents, they surely would have ignored the suited man, and scoffed at his "simpleton thinking" reasoning that if the case was worth so much to the him, then he should've been more careful with it in the first place, then putting it off as his problem for letting it get stolen, and not getting involved at all.

They definitely wouldn't help.

…

Man, my parents are assholes.

And since I don't want to be my parents, nor am I a complete asshole, I guess I should stop the thief. Ah, and I almost remembered what Francis had told me too…

At that moment, I put my foot out just when said thief ran beside me, and tripped him. He didn't expect that, and fell forward landing his unfortunate face into a pile of slush, the case flying from his grip and falling a few feet away.

"Heh, serves you right, you little piece of trash", I gloated.

The suited man finally caught up to us, his breathing heavy and his face slightly wet. I was surprised. How strange… how very strange…

Still holding the sheets of paper in his fist, the suited man ran over to the thrown case and picked it up carefully, checking over its contents (which I tried to see, but his crouched body blocked the view) not even glancing at our direction.

"Urgh… my face…"

I looked down at the thief, who was slowly getting up, and immediately stepped on his head, feeling my previous annoyance from my thoughts rekindled, needing to release it somewhere. That somewhere was his face.

"Shut-up you lowlife. You dare talk after committing such a crime? You're lucky I didn't fucking punch the living daylights out of you". With each sentence, I increased the pressure on his head.

"Ow, ow! You're hurting me man, stop!"

A red haze started to fill my vision, and I threw away all my good intentions. Screw being a "commoner" or "good person" or whatever that shit my inner thoughts were spouting about; this was too much fun. He really was hurting. Maybe I should make him beg… yeah, that would make me feel a lot better.

"Hmph, you little wuss. This is probably just a fraction of the pain I can do to you. How about I—"

"H-hey!"

I immediately stopped my words, when a shaky voice came from the side, the red haze suddenly clearing. I looked over to where the voice came from, feeling my eyes widen a bit. Under the nearby shop's fluorescent lighting, I could finally get a clear look at the other man's face. I could see him staring at me with eyes that I couldn't make out to be green or gold, his tears gone and a scowl on his handsome face. He seemed to be Italian by the looks of his olive toned skin and chestnut hair with a funny curl bobbing up and down with every movement he made.

"Take your foot off his face, you jerk, you don't have to go that far".

"But he—"

"Just do it!"

I reluctantly took my foot off the man, and he immediately got up and ran in the opposite direction of us. Tch, lucky bastard.

"Great, now he got away. What are you going to do now?"

"Nothing, just leave him, dammit. I got back what I wanted anyways…" He started to turn away.

I was a bit disappointed. After not getting into any fights for a while, I was itching to beat the crap out of that guy. Oh well, c'est la vie, non?

…

Yes, Francis taught me that, okay? Like I could speak French to save my life…

Anyways…

The Italian was starting to walk away from me, without even saying thank you. Rude bastard.

"What, no 'thank you?' I saved that little case of yours and all I get is you breaking me up from a good fight? Not fair."

His face suddenly flushed, as he turned around. "I didn't forget okay? Just… give me a moment…"

I waited somewhat impatiently, as he took a deep breath in, and breathed out, smoke filling the air around him. How hard is it to say 'thank you' anyways?

After fidgeting with the hem of his suit, he cleared his voice and said, "Well… since you helped me out, I guess I should say… t-t-thaann… y-mfph…"

I couldn't hear the rest, as he trailed his words off into a murmur.

"What was that?"

He looked up, obviously embarrassed. "I said… t-t-thank y-you… you jerk… thank y-you for s-stopping him, dammit".

I stared at him for a bit, taking in his adorable blush, and loving the sound of his cute stutter.

Hmm…

I smirked. "Huh? I didn't quite hear what you said there~".

His face became redder and he huffed.

The red-faced man huffed and turned around. "You heard perfectly well what I said, you bastard, so good night to you". With that, he smoothed out his clothes a bit, stomped off to the edge of the side walk, and waved over a taxi.

I did my best to put out a pout. "But I really didn't hear what you said!"

The man flushed and scowled again, and yelled from the car door, "I said 'thank you'. Now goodbye and I hope to never see you again".

With that, he slammed the door shut and the taxi drove away, leaving me a bit confused and wondering when I'd ever be able to see him again...

To be continued.

So! What did you think of my first Hetalia fanfic attempt? ^^ Please leave your thoughts and thank you for reading~

13LettersLong

Title is based from this song: /watch?v=nxq7gaQGFMI