In an effort to hide his surprise at the unexpected visitor, Lovino pulled his face into a glare. He spat, "What do you want?" When he had wished for a visitor, he had meant people from his team. Even people from his Spanish class would have been preferable to the weird new girl. He vaguely remembered his grandfather saying something about working what life gives you, but that didn't matter to him now.
Natasha rolled her eyes, roughly throwing a bag onto his legs. "Your brother told me your schedule, so I got your homework for you. No one else was going to, and catching up can be difficult when you're sick. Plus, it's probably the only thing I could get you without being flat-out rejected."
As she turned on her heel to leave him alone, he couldn't stop himself from calling out. He didn't want to be left alone any longer, even if it meant having to converse with the last person he wanted to see. Tilting her head towards him, she froze halfway out of the door. He bit his tongue and blurted, "Please don't go. You're Natasha, right? Well, you're the only one besides my brother who's visited me. Would you... Would you mind.. Hanging out for a while?"
She seemed genuinely surprised at the suggestion, obviously having expected him to say something completely different. Maybe a jab at her weight or nationality, possibly even being told not to come back. The scenario of being asked to stick around seemed new to her, despite having been at the school for a year. Ignoring the nagging voices telling her to leave him anyway, she sat at the edge of his bed. His legs weren't long enough to reach the end, but she ended up being quite close to his feet. After sitting quietly for a moment, she turned towards him. Avoiding eye contact, she managed to mumble loud enough, "Um... What do people do when they... 'Hang out'?"
Lovino stared at her in disbelief before starting to explain. "Well, mostly they talk about stuff, play video or card games, sharing things that they're interested in. You know, stuff you do with friends. You do have friends, don't you?" With that statement, Natasha's face fell. She turned her face away from Lovino, keeping him from seeing the little emotions that flooded her face.
"I do have friends. We used to play after school almost every day." The melancholy in her voice made Lovino want to smack himself. Of course he would forget that she had moved at a time like this. Thinking quickly of a way to solve things, he started probing. "Do you still speak to them?" She nodded, trying hard to keep herself composed. "I try to. They all live in Minsk, so most of the time I have to call on weekends when they're just waking up. It's kind of difficult to do anything else over the computer, especially since I have to share with my family."
Deciding to abruptly change the subject, Lovino searched for a common ground with her. "Do you play any sports, Natasha?" Her name rolled off his tongue with an unintentional accent. The effect was almost instant, a soft blush creeping over her cheeks. It was so common to see this reaction that Lovino didn't even make a comment on it.
"Well, I do gymnastics at least twice a week. I'm close to reaching the fourth level, which is when it starts being competitive. I guess it isn't as 'cool' as futbol, though." Using air quotes as best as she could, Natasha made it clear she wasn't terribly interested in the sport. Lovino tilted his head, obviously unfamiliar with the pronunciation of futbol. "Was that accent from your home language," he asked. "It didn't sound like how they say it in Spanish or Italian." She nodded in response. "Belorussian. My apologies, I'm still getting used to speaking with an english accent." Mentally making a note of their conversation so far, Lovino decided to try and do what no one else in his class could do; Get to know about Natasha.
"You said that you're with family, right? Who are you staying with?" He posed the question as innocently as he could, for once being genuinely interested in the answer. Natasha sighed, leaning back. Finding nothing to lean on, she shifted her position to lean on the foot rest at the end of the bed. "Well," she started, "I have a strange family setup. See, I have a brother and a sister. My older sister is in Germany with her fiancé, and I moved here to live with my older brother and his boyfriend after my father died. However, my brother's boyfriend's family tends to come over a lot, so we pretty much consider them family."
Knowing the feeling of being overwhelmed by the family of a sibling's significant other, Lovino nodded in response. Even his grandfather had a tendency to bring over women, most of whom he knew by name. They were nice enough, but he never got to spend much time with them before they left.
A question left Lovino's mouth without his knowledge. "Why are you visiting me? You don't even know if what I have is contagious." He stared into space as he said it, quickly focusing on her face as he waited for an answer. With a shrug, Natasha started saying, "Well, one would think that if you were contagious that I wouldn't have been allowed to visit. I think your brother said that it was Lupus. I looked it up in a medical book at home. It usually isn't contagious or fatal, so I think we're both fine in the long run."
A nurse stuck her head into the room to tell them that visiting hours were over and that Lovino would be discharged soon. With a shrug, Natasha stood and picked up her backpack. Jotting something on a scrap of paper, she folded it and handed it to him. "See you on Monday, right? Text me if you need to talk at all." Darting out of the room before he could respond, Lovino stared at the paper in his hand. The nurse came in and started disconnecting all of the equipment attached to his arms, sticking bandaids where needles had been. When she left to let him change into everyday clothes, he shoved the paper into his pants pocket. Resolving to text Natasha when he got home, he let the memory of the slip fade away in favor of the excitement of being able to see all of his soccer friends again on Monday.