Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, just the story idea.


Romulus waves his eldest nipote over to him as he crouches down behind a bush. Romano sluggishly walks over, his amber eyes gazing at his five-year-old brother playing with their cousin from Seborga before focusing on his grandfather. Romulus motions for him to kneel beside him and the boy does.

"Look there, Romano," he whispers as he points behind the bush up towards a tree branch. "Tell me what you see."

The young boy glances up from his position and notices a bird dancing around on a branch. His face lights up but he makes sure to be silent. He soon looks at his nonno and whispers a reply.

"Isn't that a starling?"

The big man chuckles quietly as he nods. "You're right, my boy. A beautiful starling."

"It's just a bird though." Romano observes the small animal as it still hops from branch to branch. "Why is this so amusing to spy on it?"

"Bird watching is a sport, Roma." Romulus smiles as he ruffles the young boy's hair. "You see the many birds of one family and more when you bird watch. It's fun, isn't it?" He sees his nipote nod. He chuckles knowing that Romano's focus is on the bird. "When we have days where it's just us, I can take you bird watching."

Romano's little body lifts in glee as he quickly looks over at his grandfather. "Really?!"

His happy shriek causes the bird to fly off. He frowns as his nonno laughs jovially. Romulus pats the young boy's shoulder before standing up. He smiles down as the young one follows his movement.

"Yes. I promise to take you bird watching." He ruffles Romano's hair, smiling wider when the boy chuckles. "Just be sure that you're quiet. Birds scare easily, you know."

"I know," the boy replies as he fixes his hair. He pouts a little just to make his grandfather laugh – who does laugh to please his grandson. Romano then smiles and hugs the man's leg. "I love you, Grandpa Rome."

Romulus smiles wider to the point where his face could split in two. "Ti amo mio nipote."

The first day of classes was easy to get through for the Vargas'. They have a few general classes together with some of their major classes for the semester. Feliciano is going for art, following their nonno's footsteps, and Romano is going for culinary arts. Romulus painted for a living, but his dream was to own a restaurant. Feliciano loves painting, so he took that path. Romano adores cooking so he's chasing the same dream his nonno had.

Both men share two classes with each other before they separate into their own specific classes. Feliciano goes to the Art Hall and Romano walks to the Culinary Hall. The elder Italian brother doesn't think of possibly gaining new friends like his brother, but he also does not expect to see a familiar face in his class.

Antonio's smile is dull as he sits near a counter with a sink and dishwasher. Romano tenses as he prays that the Spaniard won't notice him, but of course, it's all futile. Green eyes land on him almost instantly as he tries to go to a counter far away from the man. The smile on Antonio's face brightens and he waves Romano over.

"Lovino, over here!" The man excitedly calls him over. "Sit with me!"

Romano can't help but feel that it seems like an order, but he ignores it. With a sigh, he goes over and sits next to the guy. Better to sit next to a person he knows little about than to sit next to someone he knows nothing of. He thinks this, yet he still makes it clear to the Spaniard that he wants nothing to do with him.

Antonio either doesn't get the message or ignores it entirely.

"To think we'd be in a class together, huh?" Toni's green eyes stare at the other in hopes of a response.

The Italian stays silent. He rolls his eyes when he realizes the man won't leave him be until he gets an answer, so he shrugs. "Just how it went," he says the short answer in a dull tone.

"Well, since you sat next to me, we'll be working together in some projects." Antonio smiles wide. "We should get to know each other better."

Romano has all he can do not to groan and hit his head against the counter before him. He just had to sit next to him. He still had time to stand up and go somewhere else, but that's tiring. He'll just have to deal with it for this semester.

"Whatever," he replies quietly, eyes always forward. He dares not look at the annoying, smiling person next to him. "Don't expect us to just be friends instantly."

Antonio's smile dims a little as he processes the other's reply. "Well, one can hope we do become friends."

Before the Italian can reply, the professor steps through the threshold of the room along with some stragglers. Romano's amber eyes focus on the culinary professor – a tall, thin man with blond hair that goes to his shoulders and some stubble on his chin – and ignores the Spaniard.

The professor places down his satchel in the stool up front and smiles at the small class. "Bonjour, everyone. I am your professor for this semester, Francis Bonefoy. You may call me Francis, Mr. Bonefoy, or Professor. I prefer to be on equal terms with my students, so you may all call me by my first name as much as you please." His blue eyes scan the classroom, taking in the two dozen students in the room. "Since today is the first day, we will merely introduce ourselves and look over the syllabus before I dismiss you all for the day." The students mutter in relief as he pulls out a stack of packets from his satchel. "Take one and pass it back, please." He says as he splits the stack among each column of people.

This happens for at least three to five minutes until everyone has a packet. Romano glances over the syllabus quick, seeing that 70% of the class will be learning recipes and cooking while the last 30% is split between attendance, participation, and quizzes/tests. He smirks, knowing full well that he'll pass this class no problem.

Francis soon begins asking the students their names. They each state their name, major, year, why they're taking the class, and an interesting fact about themselves. A lot of laughs are made here and there, but Romano only cracks a small crooked smile. He's dreading his turn.

It soon gets to his table and Antonio goes first. He smiles bright and tries to stand up only to make his stool tip behind him and fall over. Everyone laughs, and he joins them, but Romano rolls his eyes.

"Sorry about that." The Spaniard grabs his chair from the ground and sits back down instead of standing like he intended. "My name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. I'm a sophomore majoring in agriculture. I'm taking this class because it fills a credit for my course but also because I love cooking, so I know it'll be fun. And a fun fact…" he trails off with a hum. "I have a mini tomato farm in my dorm room."

Hearing his favorite fruit being mentioned, Romano's gaze examines the man beside him. If that was true, he would love to try some of his tomatoes…only because he has a natural obsession with those deliciously plump red fruits.

When Antonio's emerald eyes glance at him, Romano jumps a little before he realizes it's his turn. He's the last one but he's not going to be anything memorable. "My name's Romano Lovino Vargas, but I prefer to be called Lovino. No shortening my name, it irritates me." He takes a moment to think of everything else. "I'm a freshman majoring in culinary arts. I'm taking this class because it's required but also because I enjoy cooking. It's relaxing for me in a way. And my interesting fact…" he trails of as he thinks that he's not all that interesting. Mentally shrugging away plenty of facts he could say, he goes with the safe fact nearly everyone knows. "I have a brother who's two years younger than me but could pass as my identical twin."

Francis nods, a sparkle in his eyes as Lovino is one of the few in his class with culinary arts as a major. "Very good!" He claps his hands together and everyone looks at him. "Now, if you all would look at your syllabus and follow along with me, I will explain everything on these pages and then dismiss you all for the day."

Everyone does as he instructs, including Romano. He notices as the time goes on that Antonio seems to peek over at him, but he ignores the man. He only has one more cooking class after this and he'll be free for the rest of the day. His thoughts soon run away as he thinks about how his brother is doing in his class. He hopes he's doing well and a lot more fortunate than he is with classmates.

After Francis goes through the syllabus and states that the books are very important to have for the semester, he dismisses the class and everyone leaves. Romano packs up his syllabus in his sack and begins to head out towards his last class, but Antonio lightly pulls on his arm to stop him. The Italian glares at the man but Antonio merely smiles at him.

"Are you free right now? Wanna get some lunch?"

The brunet sighs, shaking his head. "I have one more class to get to. So, I'll be going." He starts walking but Antonio follows him as he slings his own bag over his shoulder.

"Then how about after that?" It doesn't seem this guy is going to give up.

Romano's sigh turns into an annoyed growl as he keeps walking, not even looking back at the other. "I'm kind of busy, so if you'd so kindly fuck off, I might think about maybe, maybe eating lunch or whatever with you once. But only if you swear to leave me alone and stop buggering me like this. It's annoying."

The Spaniard goes silent for a moment. Romano feels a prickly feeling crawl up his back which causes him to stop walking and shiver. He turns back in time to see a cold stare in those green eyes before they snap into the happy-go-lucky persona the other guy gives off.

"How about I ease off a little, but we still have lunch at least once or twice a week?" He offers.

Lovino studies the Spaniard's face for a moment, considering the compromise. He lists the pros and cons in his head, them being nearly even but the pros winning out in the end. He rolls his eyes and turns back around.

"Fine," he states. "But you've gotta back off like you said. All this hovering around me shit is creepy and makes me think you're on the borderline of stalking me."

Antonio laughs. "I wouldn't stalk you. I just want to be your friend."

Yet when Romano glances back to see the smile on the other's face, he reads another layer under that face and sentence.

"Whatever." He pulls up his bag and looks away. "I seriously need to get going. So, I guess I'll see you around, tomato bastard."

Antonio cocks his head to the side. "Tomato bastard?"

Romano quickly rushes away without replying, his face feeling a little warm. He couldn't believe that slipped out. He only wanted to say it in his head – he instantly dubbed Antonio the 'tomato bastard' because of him having a tomato farm and being a bastard already – but his filter didn't work again. He sighs, hoping that the idiot doesn't think it's an endearment. It's far from an endearment, or so Lovino will say to himself.

The Italian enters his last class of the day, mind full of fog as his thoughts clutter around. He really just wants the day to end so he can eat and sleep on his bed, but he has to get the rest of his books after his last class. Why did he have to go to college? Feliciano could have gone without him.

When a starling flies by the window Romano sits next to, he smiles. Seeing his nonno like that always seemed to help him on certain days. He guesses he'll be seeing a lot of starlings around as the semester goes on, but he doesn't mind that at all.

He'd do anything for his grandfather to smile down on him and be proud to call him his nipote.


Note: This is not beta-ed so there might be mistakes.

Ciao: I hope you enjoyed the update, lovelies! Thanks for reading! R&R.