Lovino couldn't breathe.

It was after him. If he stopped at all, it… that. That would grab him, devour him; torture him in ways so inhumane that it could make even the cruelest men in history cringe. It didn't tell Lovino that, no, it couldn't speak. The most he'd ever heard were malicious, blood-curdling growls, the sound of the claws skidding on the ground behind him. But there was something, some instinct inside Lovino that told him-begged even-that he wouldn't slow down. And what other choice did Lovino Vargas have but to follow that instinct.

The lights began to go off. He could hear them.

Click.

The hallway was getting longer.

Click.

It was getting closer.

Click.

He could feel its breath.

Click.

All Lovino could see were green eyes. And then it all went black.

Beep, beep, beep!

"Ow-Fuck!"

Lovino rubbed his throbbing head with a growl, one eye open to scold the skeleton of the top bunk. Every damn morning, The Italian thought, rolling his eyes as he took in his scenario.

It took him a moment to realize he was sweating. Not too much, really. But his face was flushed, his forehead was damp, and his lungs hurt like he'd been trying to breathe a bit too fast. Still, it wasn't like he wasn't used to waking up this way. For some reason, Lovino had been plagued quite frequently with a series of bad dreams, ones he couldn't quite explain, with green eyes he couldn't quite pinpoint. But every time before it went black, those green eyes were all he saw. And them, after that, he felt… safe.

But the content of the dreams (which happened nearly every time he closed his eyes nowadays) was enough to leave him bothered, anyway. He wasn't sure what was after him, but it had left him a bit jumpy recently. Nobody seemed to notice, though. Nobody except his brother, who was sleeping his perky little ass through the obnoxious sounds of their alarm clock.

"Fuck you," He mumbled to the electronic, pressing one of the buttons to shut the sound off. 6:30 AM…

Since Feliciano had come to high school for the first time last year, they'd had to get up thirty minutes early so the other could get ready and be at school on time. Sure, Lovino had to take him either way, but Feliciano always made sure he was 'extra prepared' every morning since he became a freshman. Lovino may have found it cute, if his brother wasn't such a dumbass.

"Feli, get up, we have places to be." The sophmore said firmly, shaking Feliciano roughly. It wasn't easy to get the younger Italian up in the morning, but Lovino would be damned if he got himself another detention for being late because of something his idiot brother did.

Lovino hated school. He hated showing up, he hated doing the work, hell, he even hated the people. But most of all, he hated his parents giving him shit every time he came home with another tardy note. The hitting hurt, but the things they'd say about him, tell to him about who he was… That, by far, hurt the most. But Lovino was never the type to say that upfront, and he especially wasn't the type to cry about it. No, not ever. Emotions were a sign of weakness, and weakness was unacceptable… especially at times like this.

He knew he was in deep shit with his teachers. It was nearing the end of the year, and Lovino had racked up a good reputation around the teacher's lounge for being a, what they call, "problem student". It wasn't like he was necessarily bad, just unreasonably moody. The Italian would protest, if given the chance, that it wasn't his fault everyone was far too idiotic for him to hold his tongue. The amount of times he would speak in class would outweigh the times he was late, or for other reasons combined.

Lovino knew if he did anything or said anything else, the school would put him either in a support group, or make his parents send him to boot camp. Or he'd just get expelled, which would also be bad, because school was the only real escape he got from any of this anymore.

After assisting his brother in brushing his golden brown locks in a neat manner, Lovino made sure to get himself ready. If he was even a minute off track with the normal schedule, his father would have his head. He put on that school uniform like he usually did, making a soft 'tsk' sound when he looked into the mirror. The thing he hated more than the people at school was the school itself. An old, dusty, Catholic school where the teachers would hit you with rulers even in this day and age. They weren't supposed to, but they did, and he couldn't say shit about it, just like nobody ever did.

Lovino walked into the kitchen, a neutral expression on his face. His mother already had a plate piled with food, but Lovino knew one thing; it wasn't for him. His parents always treated him differently. They rejected him, insulted him. When he was old enough to reach the cabinets, they'd stopped feeding him breakfast and lunch, sometimes even dinner. But by now, after years, the elder Italian had adjusted. He never ate in the morning time, sometimes not even lunch. He'd just sit with his friends and watch out the window, paying little mind to much else.

He sat on the counter while he waited for Feliciano, watching him eat quickly, to the point where Lovino felt a bit disgusted.

"Get your ass off of there, you'll get the counter dirty, Lovino." His mother informed, and with a sigh, he slid off of the marble surface and decided to put on his shoes.

"Sorry Mama." He apologized while he slipped through the doorway, though not without hearing a soft 'you better be.'

Lovino tied the black laces of his boots, releasing a bitter sounding sigh to the empty room.

Why was it life felt so lonely lately? Maybe it was all just becoming routine. He didn't know why, but Lovino just felt like there was something he was missing, something more.

But, that was for another day. "Lovi, Lovi, I'm ready, I'm ready~!"

"Then hurry the fuck up, Feli, I've been waiting on you forever," Lovino snapped, arms crossed in annoyance with his younger brother. "You know it takes almost an hour to walk there, and we pick up Emma and Abel today. Get moving, now, now, now, si?" He rushed the smaller along, pushing him on the back gently so he'd go further out the door.

As they walked, they said nothing. They hardly ever did, of course. Lovino wasn't really one to talk, and Feliciano would blabber mostly to himself, not expecting any response. Ahead on their route, Lovino could make out the forms of his two closest friends.

Abel was a nice man, he supposed. Never talked much, but that was fine with Lovino. He was a senior now, graduating at the end of the year, and Lovino would be sad to see him go, since hanging around him would occasionally intimidate the other students into keeping the fuck away from Lovino, just how he wanted. He'd also found a giant picture book of rabbits under Abel's bed before, which neither of them spoke of. But he'd never forget it. His spikey hair and scar made him seem like a tough guy, but Lovino knew he was a softie at heart.

Emma was an even nicer girl. She tended to mother and fawn on Lovino and even Feliciano from time to time. It could be embarrassing, if Emma wasn't so pretty. Her short blonde hair and dark green eyes made guys jealous of Lovino for just being friends with her, though Lovino had no romantic interest in Emma at all.

Sure, he was attracted to girls. All of them were pretty, and everything. He'd even had a girlfriend in Kindergarten. But there was something about Emma… she was too much a friend. Anyway, he was pretty sure she was a lesbian. After all, she liked to stare at a few of the girls in school more than a little bit of the time…

She liked cats almost as much as Abel loved rabbits. She had so many, that it seemed like every day a new breed of cat was sitting on her windowsill watching them. It was true, too. Either her cat changed colors, or she had too many different ones to count on both hands. It made Lovino a little bit skeptical of ever coming to her house.

"Ciao, Em. Ciao, Abel." Lovino greeted with a somewhat forced smile. Normally he would've snapped at them if they were anyone else, but they'd been friends since childhood, and he'd gotten so used to them that he stopped being pissed (for the most part) at their actions.

"Hello, Lovi!" Emma greeted, grabbing him into a gentle hug which made Lovino groan. The greeting received from Abel was nothing but a simple grunt, but Lovino knew the meaning, so it wasn't like it mattered.

"Morning," The Italian mumbled, keeping one eye on his friends, and the other on his brother. If he left him unattended too long, he might end up doing something, or running away… Lovino would never hear the end of it if his brother got lost or something happened to him, he knew that much. His parents would kill him, and frankly, Lovino didn't prefer being eaten for dinner tonight. Not like it would be much worse than his life now.

"So Feliciano, how are you and Ludwig faring?" Emma inquired while the four walked their normal route down the sidewalk. Lovino and Abel hung behind, while Emma and Feliciano walked hand in hand. Lovino didn't mind this contact, it clearly wasn't romantic, but only an action among friends. He was perfectly fine with that, but not so much the topic of conversation. Feliciano's boyfriend.

"Oh! Well, he took me on a date on Saturday! Lovi barely let me go…" He said, clear disappointment in his tone.

"And with reason, Feli. That German bastard is no good for you," To say Lovino was bitter about Feliciano's love life was an understatement. No, he was furious. Nobody was ever going to be good enough for his brother, money or social life be damned, and especially not some German who was related to that… that asshole.

Feliciano huffed. "He's not that bad, Lovino…"

Lovino's hate for Germans certainly didn't spawn from Ludwig himself, no. As much as Lovino hated to admit it, Ludwig really was a good kid. The only reason he didn't stop their relationship completely was because, well, Ludwig was polite. He held his tongue. He really was good for Feliciano, even if a bit meek. No… It was his damn, fucking, useless piece of shit brother who was a year older than Lovino and still managed to treat him like shit every time he passed him in the halls. Sure, he bullied everyone, but Lovino was one of his favorites. It was just so easy to bully the moody one; he was sure Gilbert got a rush after he fought back. Did that stop him? Lovino Vargas?! No! He wasn't just going to sit back and let himself be told shit. That was another reason why he was in so much trouble. But fuck it if Lovino would just take it. Fuck it if he'd just sit down and let himself be told that shit, that he got too angry, that his voice made him sound stupid, that he was too short or too quiet or too, well, anything. And in all the mix, he also used it as a way to flirt, as if Lovino would respond positively to his gross sexual harassment. God, did he hate him, and man was he worried for what the Prussian might do to him.

Lovino rolled his eyes. "Just keep telling yourself that, Feli."

The school was nice, despite being one Lovino hated so much. It was big, looked to have some Victorian touches. It was clearly an old building… He'd heard it had been something else before like a house or a hospital, but couldn't remember which. They redecorated and repainted and it was restored inside to it's former glory, then set up nicely so it could become the new school in the area. Besides the giant cross on the side, he thought it was gorgeous. He tugged on his uniform, releasing a large breath of air from his nose.

They were in different classes. Each of them was from a different year, after all. It was sad to say goodbye, but they each would meet again at lunch time to be together. Lovino could wait that long, it was all that pushed him through the morning classes, and then all that pushed him to the end of the day was knowing he got to walk home. But then he'd get home, and life would lose its color again… If it even had any in the first place.

Lovino sighed softly on his way to his class, bulky math book in hand, bag over his shoulder. There was still a few minutes before class started, but he usually spent them just outside the classroom. However, something changed those plans rather quickly.

"Vargas," He could smell his damn cologne, his smug sense of self-satisfaction that put an aura around him; Lovino could recognize it anywhere. Before he knew it, he was pushed firmly against one of the lockers, body language tense, face turned away from the culprit. God, he could even hear the pride in his voice, the way he liked to seem more powerful than Lovino. Hell, he might have been… Lovino barely had the will to look him in the eye.

"Get the fuck off of me." Lovino warned, though the words seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

"I hear you're in big trouble if you get one more shot from a teacher… You think they'd expel you? It'd be so much better if I could walk to class without needing to stop and stare at your ass," He said close to his ear, "maybe I could stop being late myself." He said with a smirk.

Lovino thought he was so disgusting… How he managed to even have friends was beyond him. "Maybe you should stop staring at my ass, then, bastard."

"But how could I? You do walk in such an alluring way, after all."

"I'm walking how everybody else does," Lovino said quickly, wiggling himself out of his grasp, but to no avail, as he was grabbed onto very quickly right after that. "Gilbert, stop. I need to get to class, fuck off." He simply wasn't in the mood for such antics today, he tensed visibly when he was grabbed.

"Oh, c'mon, I just want to talk. You have all day to learn." He took a step closer, and Lovino pulled away.

"No, fuck you, if I get any more tardies I'm going to get in trouble. Go find someone else to harass and make your dick hard." He snapped, yanking his arm firmly out of Gilbert's grasp. It was almost 8:00… fuck.

Gilbert seemed to be throwing a fit behind him, but Lovino didn't care. "Fine, you asshole. I hope they do expel you, it would be better for everyone if it was just your brother!"

Lovino flinched. He'd heard those words a thousand times, so why did it still hurt each time he heard them again? But it didn't matter, he had to get to class.

So he'd broken out into a run, despite hearing a teacher remind him not to do so, and quickly made it down to his classroom… 6M… The 6th math class, the one for AP students. And the door was already closed. Double fuck.

When he opened the door though, the first thing he heard was, "Lovino Vargas?"

"Here!" He yelled while he quickly made it to his desk, earning a slight scold from the teacher.

"You were almost late, Vargas. You know once I call your name-"

"Then I'm officially late and it counts on my record, blahblah, I've heard it before," Lovino snapped, setting his things down beside him.

His teacher gave him another glare, and then looked away. "…Well then, since you know it so well, you better not be late anymore."

"Yeah, I know that one too."

"Watch your tongue."

Lovino rolled his eyes, arms crossed while he stared at the book on his desk. The teacher continued the lesson from Friday, and all Lovino could do was watch her point her wrinkly fingers and things on the board… He fucking hated math. All the equations, figures he couldn't really understand. He didn't even know how he made it to Advanced Placement, but somehow, he did.

When the class was over, then came science. He sat through a lecture about some sort of organism… something… the way it reproduced, where it lived. But he didn't care. He'd study it all on a whim later, before the test or homework. He was too busy staring out the window, thinking about his dreams.

What alluring green eyes they were… Every time he saw them, despite the creature chasing him, everything froze. It calmed down. It never caught him. The eyes protected him, made him feel safe, and warm. Were they a God? Were they someone he knew, or nobody at all? He wondered who they belonged to. They were a shade much different from his own, or even Emma, though he considered the possibility of it being the woman, since he did adore her friendship and frankly, she did make him feel safe. But they were a different color of green, one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen…

"Lovino," The voice of the teacher brought him back to live, and he shook his head before looking up.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, what, Mr. Davis?" He asked, trying to look around the room for perhaps a hint on the lesson at hand.

"How would you describe the way cells reproduce?"

Lovino, now back to his senses, held himself back from saying 'I don't fucking care' and instead decided to give an honest answer. "Cells divide to increase their numbers through mitosis, creating two daughter cells with identical sets of chromosomes… They make copies of themselves."

His teacher nodded in approval, before looking back to the rest of the class. "Good job, Mr. Vargas. Now—"
Lovino began to fade it out again, looking back out the window as he thought everything over. Soon came lunch time, and Lovino couldn't leave the room fast enough.

He and his friends and brother ate lunch in silence. Feli had left them midway to instead go and sit with Ludwig, and Lovino didn't even bother to tell him not to. Why bother? Anyway, he was probably too distant to really say anything about it. However, he was not too distant to hear what Gilbert would say to him.

"Don't fucking bother me again," He mumbled, placing his tray above the trashcan. "I'm really not in the fucking mood, dumbass. I mean it, don't fucking bother me."

"Aww, but I just wanted to apologize for earlier, Lovi…" The German said, one hand to his chest like he was being sincere. Lovino tensed, clenching his fist.

"Don't fucking call me Lovi, bastard," His voice came out harsh, warning… Gilbert didn't seem to get the picture. He took a step closer, Lovino's knuckles got whiter.

Gilbert pouted. "Oh, but it's so cute, endearing even… It suits you. Just give me a kiss, c'mon, just one? Give me a kiss and I'll stop calling you Lovi~?" He smirked, and all that Lovino could do was shake his head. "Well, then…" He took another step closer, pushing him against the wall. "I'll just take it from you."

He'd had it. Lovino placed his hands firmly on Gilbert's chest and forced him forward so hard he stumbled into one of the staff and onto the floor, spilling the persons lunch onto himself. "I said stay the fuck away from me, you asshole! I'm not going to tolerate your bullshit anymore!" He held up a fist, looking like he was about to hit him, before he felt someone's hand around his wrist, and he looked up to see the person of the staff who was now covered in what would've been his meal. All eyes were on him.

The principal… Oh shit.