AN/ I wrote this as part of a, um, let's call it challenge? So a friend and I picked a topic (it was "a child's first love", and yes, I used it as the title because, haha, I suck at titling), and for the next two hours (aprox) he drew and I wrote. This is the result. (My friend's drawing is the cover art. You can see more of his work in his Tumblr, phoe99universe). Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia (but just you wait...)
A CHILD'S FIRST LOVE
Lovino held Feliciano's little hand in his. Mum had cooed and said he was such a good big brother. Truth be told, Lovino fully planned to use his little brother as a human shield to protect himself from unwanted human contact. But she didn't have to know that.
Anxiously, Lovino looked around himself, at all the kids who came to one more day of school. He saw best friends rushing to greet each other, groups of classmates sharing what they had done during the weekend, some kid here or there showing the new hole in his mouth and the money the tooth fairy had left under his pillow.
He squeezed Feli's hand and swallowed. All those kids already had more than enough friends; why would they ever want to mingle with the weird kid who had just moved from the other end of the country and arrived when the school year was halfway through? He knew he wouldn't.
Mum finished talking to the headmaster and turned to them. "Okay, boys, I have to leave now. Be nice and have fun on your first day of school!" she said, smiling at them before rushing back to the car and speeding away.
Lovino breathed deeply, trying to fight back tears. Previous experiences told him that crying on his first day at a new school wasn't the best way to start.
"Okay, Lovino and Feliciano," the headmaster said then, claiming their attention. She was an old woman, with old-woman grey hair and old-woman glasses. She looked old-woman nice. That, at least, comforted Lovino a little bit. (Maybe it had to do with the nightmare he had had the night before, in which the director had turned out to be the Devil itself.) "I'm so happy to have you here for the remainder of the year," she said, looking kindly at them. Feli smiled back; Lovino looked away. "I'm sure that you'll get to know the place and have plenty of new friends in no time. Now, the first lesson is about to start. I'll show you to your classes, yes?"
"Yes!" Feli exclaimed, excited.
Oh please God no, Lovino thought, anxious.
~{x}~
His whole face burnt, and the hushed comments of his new classmates as the teacher introduced him only made it worse.
I've never before seen anyone blush like that.
He's so red!
Hah, what a loser…
Wow, he's redder than my jumper.
He looks so cute!~
His legs were trembling, but Lovino made an effort to remain standing still in front of the class. Like Hell he was going to show weakness in front of that lot!
Finally, the teacher finished the introduction and told him to take a seat. Holding his backpack as if it were a lifesaver, Lovino walked to the far end of the room, where there were two empty desks, and sat heavily on the chair.
Only six hours until he went back home.
~{x}~
The first class was Mathematics. Lovino liked math; he was good at math. Numbers were easy: either right or wrong, no room for interpretation. People couldn't confuse him in math. Every time the teacher asked a question, Lovino got it right. Not that he actually answered out loud. God no, he wasn't nearly half as brave as needed. He answered in his mind, and he silently smiled and congratulated himself when the teacher, after a few seconds of awkward silence and confused stares, revealed the answer.
When the class was ending, the teacher returned some corrected homework. Lovino barely listened as he addressed each kid, pointing out some mistakes to take into account for the next time. He didn't care about his classmates' abilities at math. That is, until one of them dared to talk back.
"Mr. Fernández, while everyone else moves forward, you keep moving backwards," the teacher stated, frowning, as he handed a sheet of paper with more red than blue in it to a brown-haired kid.
"That's not fair, sir!" the kid protested. "I try!"
"Trying is not enough. I strongly suggest that you fix your attitude, or I foresee a very bad future for you." Before the kid could protest again, he added: "You'll stay here during recess redoing the last homework. For your own good, I expect it to be flawless."
The kid sunk into his chair, clearly mad, and stuck his tongue out at the teacher when he turned his back on him.
Lovino sighed and stopped paying attention.
Only five hours until he went back home.
~{x}~
After Mathematics came Art. Lovino liked drawing, but he was very self-conscious about his own art. His five-years-old little brother already drew better than him! ("The family's promising artist", Nonno called him. Lovino hated it.)
The class passed pretty much without incidents, even though the teacher had to scold at least five times a trio of kids who wouldn't stop chatting and giggling and doing basically anything except for what they were supposed to do. Lovino recognized one of those kids as the brown-haired who had received the anger of the math teacher before. His two partners in crime were a boy with long, golden hair (at first, Lovino had thought he was a girl), and a weirdo with very pale skin and greyish hair. The three of them looked like idiots.
When Art class ended, Lovino shyly handed in his drawing.
Only four hours until he went back home.
~{x}~
After Art came English.
Boy, Lovino sucked at English.
It was too different from his native Italian. Orthography rules had been made by a monkey and pronunciation rules were virtually non-existent. He struggled with reading out loud, and he'd be damned if he could write something coherent in that crazy, stupid language.
To his utter relief, the teacher didn't call on him to read or answer to any question. Perhaps she sensed his discomfort, or maybe she didn't want to overwhelm him on his first day. Either way, Lovino couldn't be more grateful…
… until she walked to him at the end of the class.
"Mr. Vargas, right? I'd like for you to fill this," she said as she handed him some papers. "Just some exercises so I know what your level is. You can stay in class during recess, which starts now, and I'll come pick them up afterwards. Is that okay?"
Lovino stared blankly at her. She wanted him to skip recess only so she could test him? What kind of evil being was she? Then again…
I don't have any friends to play with during recess.
"Okay," he said.
Only three hours until he went back home.
~{x}~
"Ah! You're the new kid, aren't you? Why are you here? What did you do?"
Oh dammit.
Lovino had completely forgotten about Mr. Fernández, the kid who had talked back to the math teacher. He glared at him from his desk, hoping he would catch the message and shut up.
He didn't.
"My name is Antonio, but you can call me Toni," he said, standing up from his chair and sitting next to Lovino. He even brought his stuff! Did he plan to sit with him for the entire recess? "You're Lovino, right? Can I call you Lovi?"
"Do whatever you want, but don't bother me," Lovino replied, frowning. "I have to do this."
"Hm?" Curious, Antonio peeked at the papers on Lovino's desk. "Oh, that's English! I love English!" Without warning or contemplation, he snatched them away from Lovino and looked at them.
"Oi!" Lovino yelled, indignant. Why wasn't a single teacher with them? "Give it back!"
"Ah, you made a mistake here," Antonio said, ignoring him. "See? You spelled it with an f, but it should be ph."
"I — I knew that!" Lovino growled, getting his paper back. "It's just… elephant is spelled with an f in Italian."
"So it's in Spanish," Antonio smiled. "I struggled a bit at first, too, but soon you'll get used to it."
"Whatever," he grunted. "Now let me do this in peace. Don't you have stuff to do anyway?"
Antonio's smile fell. "Yeah, I have to do this stupid math homework." Then he gasped and looked at Lovino in horror. "Don't tell anyone I said that!" he pleaded. "It's just… Math drives me crazy," he sighed. "I don't get it."
"I like math," Lovino said before he could contain himself. "It's the same everywhere." He hesitated for a moment, and then: "Can I see your homework?"
Without a word, Antonio pushed his paper across the desk. Lovino took it and studied it. It was hard to read due to Antonio's messy handwriting and the corrections in red, but the mistakes were clear to Lovino's logic mind.
"Here," he pointed. "You messed up the order of operations. First brackets; then multiplication and division; then addition and subtraction. And… Here, I think you just got confused by the question. See, if you make a drawing it's much clearer."
Antonio looked at him with big eyes open wide (they were a beautiful shade of green, Lovino noticed), at first in shock, and then with the brightest smile Lovino had ever seen. "Lovi, you are awesome!" he shrieked, happy.
Lovino blushed, but couldn't help but feel flattered. "Y-Yeah, I know."
So Lovino helped Antonio with his math homework, and then Antonio helped Lovino with his English questions, and then they even had some spare time to go over their Pokemon cards.
"My favourite is Arcanine, but I don't have it," Lovino pouted as he showed Antonio his collection. "Though I do have Ninetales, like, three times."
"I do have Arcanine, but only once, sorry," Antonio said. "And my favourite is Charizard! And I don't like Bulbasur."
"No one likes Bulbasur."
They both laughed.
Lovino wasn't sure how long it was left until he had to go back home.
~{x}~
When the rest of the kids came back from recess, Antonio introduced Lovino to his two best friends, Francis and Gilbert. They weren't half as excited as Antonio, and Lovino could understand why: they didn't want to share Antonio with someone else. Lovino wasn't thrilled, either.
Luckily, Antonio decided to sit with him for the rest of the day.
And lessons flew by as if they weren't longer than a couple of minutes. They chatted until the teacher told them to stop; then kept chatting, but in a hushed voice; and when the teacher scolded them again, they started to write notes to each other.
Lovino kept the one in which Antonio confessed I thought you were really cute when you blushed this morning.
He wanted to reply You are even cuter when you smile, but he was too embarrassed. Instead, he wrote You're more or less cool.
Antonio kept it.
~{x}~
When the last class ended, Lovino left in a hurry. He had to pick up Feli in his class before Mum arrived to pick them up.
Thankfully, he didn't get too lost, and soon found his little brother's class. Feli looked as happy as ever, and Lovino, for once, patiently listened to his blabbering. Maybe after he was done talking, it'd be his turn to tell him about Antonio.
They had already left the building and were waiting for Mum's car to show up when Lovino felt a pat on his shoulder. He turned to see Antonio beaming at him.
"Hi, Lovi! You left so quickly I didn't have time to say goodbye," he laughed. "I can't stay to chat because my brother will kill me," he said, discretely pointing at a teenager that waited a few steps behind. He looked exactly like Antonio, only that older and grumpier. "So here, have this," he added, smacking something in Lovino's hand, "and I'll see you tomorrow!" he finished.
Before turning and leaving, he pulled Lovino into a warm hug and kissed his cheek.
"See you!" he waved as he left.
"B-Bye," Lovino whispered, his face completely red.
When Antonio and his brother got lost in the crowd, Lovino pulled out of his stupor and finally looked at what Antonio had given him.
It was his Arcanine card.
Lovino grinned.
~{x}~
"How was school? Did you make any new friends?"
"Mum."
"Yes, Lovino, dear?"
"I'm in love."
"Really? What's her name?"
"…"
"What's his name—?"
"Antonio."
"That's great. Are you going to marry him?"
"I don't know. Yes. Maybe. We'll see."
AN/ Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome! :D