Woo, finally got around to finishing this~ Been a bit busy lately, haha~! Enjoy!

There's also nothing of real importance in this chapter... Pff.

Chapter rating: T mainly for swearing.

Once they had pulled up to Francis's house, the blonde himself was standing outside. He looked a little irritated at first, but brightened up the second he spotted his friends.

"About time! I thought you said you would be an hour tops!" Francis tried to keep that smile on his face, but you could see frusteration behind it.

"Ahhh... You know it takes an hour to get there and back.." Antonio tried to say, as he stood up and out of the car, closing the door behind him.

"Well, no matter!" Just like that, it seemed the anger faded from the blond's voice. He turned around to face Lovino, opening the door for the Italian. "Come on Lovino! I've got something to show you!" Francis said, and turned around walking back towards the house.

"Great, this better not be like last year." Lovino puffed out his cheeks, standing up as he followed his friends. He had a small pout on his face, looking around as he entered the house. So far, it looked the same as usual. There was nothing fancy done to the house, none of the glass items were put away for safe keeping... So it didn't look like there was going to be a party. He had to hold back the sigh of relief when they entered the living room. The only person there was his brother, who immediately stood from the couch to wrap his arms around Lovino.

"You finally made it fratellone!" Feliciano cheered, holding his older sibling in a tight embrace.

"Ack! Get off me Feli!" Lovino started to shove his brother, trying to peel the younger Italian's arms off of him. Feliciano just wouldn't budge, so Lovino gave up.

"Happy birthday, Lovi~" His brother hummed, a big goofy smile on his face. "I can't wait until later tonight, it's going to be so fun-"

"Feli, hush!" Francis hissed, giving the smaller boy a slight glare.

"Later tonight..?" Lovino questioned, looking more confused by the minute.

"Aah, haha, cake! I think.. I think Feliciano is talking about when we eat the cake." Antonio tried to say, rubbing the back of his head. "Come on Lovi, let's sit!" Antonio gestured to the couch. With a huff, Lovino went to plop himself down on it, Antonio following close behind as the Spaniard wrapped his arms arond the Italian.

"I'm guessing that no matter what I ask, you guys will not tell me what's going on, will you?" Lovino was quite angry at this. He hated surprises, and he would have rather spent his whole birthday alone.

"Oui, you've got it! I will tell you one thing, though. We brought you here to my house so we could all tell you happy birthday, and give you our presents first!" Francis told Lovino happily, a big grin on his face. "So, happy birthday Lovi! Oh, just give me a second! I'll grab the presents~!" Just like that Francis was off on the hunt for where the trio had left their gifts.

"There's going to be more people... Isn't there..?" Lovino asked, his arms folded across his chest.

"Well... Maybe one or two... Or three... Or a dozen." Antonio admitted, making a small shrug. He made a small yelp as Lovino punched his arm. "Come on Lovi! There's a reason..! If it wasn't for who was visiting, it would just be a normal thing!"

"Visiting..? Wait... Who..? It's not my father, is it?"

"Of course not!" Antonio laughed, patting the other's back. "I'm sure you'll-" He was cut off by the sound of loud knocking, and Francis yelling 'Could you get that Antonio~?'

"Just get the door.." Lovino grumbled, pointing in the direction of the front hall, resting his face in his free hand.

Watching Antonio get up, Lovino felt a hand gently rubbing his back. Looking up at his brother, he could only frown. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but obviously everyone else did. Even Feliciano. His own brother wasn't going to tell him. Suddenly there was going to be a mystery person too? Well.. At least it wasn't his no good father, the stupid bastard. Was it someone he knew? Before he got too into his thoughts, he seen a girl standing in front of him.

"Hi, Lovi~" She hummed, holding a small gift in her hands.

"Oh, hey Belle." He said, making a small wave.

"It looks like something is bothering you.. It's your birthday! Cheer up!" She gave him a sweet smile, as she held the small gift box out towards him. "It's nothing much, but maybe it will cheer you up. Happy birthday." She watched as Lovino smiled, nodding and thanking her in his own way.

"You're too kind.." He mumbled, opening up the small box revealing a new watch. He made sure to put it on right away, and that was when Francis came in holding a couple more gifts.

After everyone wishing him a happy birthday (plus the pleasure of his little group of friends singing him that annoying birthday song) they sat and chatted for a couple hours. About nothing in particular. Lovino thanked everyone for the gifts that he recieved. (A beautiful new dress shirt from Francis, as well as a night shirt with a print of a tomato on it from Antonio, and his brother gave him a gift card of 100$ to his favourite restaraunt. He was thankful, he needed these. Antonio also promised to take him somewhere special, but as usual refused to tell. All Lovino knew was that his best friend had better pick a better location then last time.)

It was going on to about 7 o'clock, and that was when Lovino noticed Francis getting a little jumpy.

"Oi, Franny." Lovino began, as he watched the French man turn to him.

"What's up Lovi~? I told you, we can't have your cake until a little bit later." Francis replied, a smile appearing on his face.

"No, no.. That wasn't what I was going to say at all."

"Then what's up, birthday boy~?" Francis cooed.

"Your acting a little strange all of a sudden." Lovino started. "Is something the matter..?"

"Strange? How so?"

"Every now and then you look towards the door, as if you're expecting a monster just to barge in."

"Oh.." Francis paused, clearing his throat. "Well, you see Lovi.. I'm uh... Kind of expecting more people."

"Nooo. Really?" Lovino asked, sarcasm not even trying to hide in his voice. "I thought all of that beer and delicious food in the kitchen, of which you wont let me eat, was all for you when I left." Lovino grumbled. He wasn't an idiot. He already knew that Francis couldn't resist throwing him a party. That was just who he was, though. So over the course of the day, Lovino has been preparing himself just to exclude himself from society and drag Antonio somewhere so he could at least spend the rest of the day in peace with his friend.

"Haha..~ Well, Lovi, look." Francis rubbed the back of his head a moment. "It's not that simple to explain."

"No, I know already. You don't have to sugar coat it."

"I... Just, nevermind~ Let's just enjoy the party~" Francis made an awkward laugh. He knew that if he told Lovino that the second part of the party wasn't just for him, the Italian might have been a little taken back. Even through his words of 'I don't give a shit', no matter how much that Italian said he didn't care, even Francis could read his jealousy sometimes. He has known Lovino for that long. The Italian was practically like an open book, sometimes. That wasn't a bad thing though.

"Francis.." Lovino scratched the back of his head a bit.

"Oui?"

"How about I help you set up for the party. I know how much you hate leaving your precious glass out." Lovino watched as a smile appeared on the blond's face, before Francis started to round up all of the people that were there already. Belle, Antonio, Feliciano, Lovino, and himself, looking as happy as ever.

"I thought you'd never ask~!"

They finished cleaning up quickly, at least before the guests actually started arriving. Some of them were people that he knew, who came over and greeted him with things like "Hey! Francis told me it was your birthday! Happy birthday!" and then they would evacuate to where there was food. Lovino decided to drag his Spanish friend away with him, picking up a plate of assorted food to eat (he hasn't eaten since lunch) and leaned against the wall. The music was turned up loud to the point it was hard to hear anything, and the worst part was his friend was barely paying attention to him!

"Hey, Toni, what the hell is up with you right now?" Lovino asked, as he popped a grape into his mouth. Antonio turned to him, giving him a small smile.

"Oh? Nothing Lovi, hehe~" Antonio had to raise his voice slightly so he could be heard over the loud obnoxious tunes.

"Don't pull that nothing crap with me!"

"Oh, Lovi! I'll be right back, okay~?" As if Antonio heard nothing Lovino said. The Spaniard just walked off, going to meet some random guy.

"Great, he fucking left me here, with no one." Lovino mumbled to himself. It's not like he was jealous, he just hated being left alone. It wasn't even the end of his birthday! His friends, and brother, were supposed to be showering him in attention right now. Not that... He wanted that. Fuck no! He could have been perfectly fine being alone on his birthday, but Antonio HAD to barge in and drag him out to this. Sure, it was nice for the first few hours, getting to chat with all his friends, but he didn't know where any of them had gone. He lost track of Antonio within minutes when he wandered into the crowd, he hadn't seen his brother since some blond muscle man came in. Lovino hadn't paid much attention, but Feliciano said something about 'finally being able to meet him in person', so Lovino wasn't going to ruin it for his brother. He was allowed to have friends, so why intervine?

That's when Lovino spotted who exactly Antonio ran off to meet. All he could see was what looked like... Really pale blond hair, maybe. It was hard to tell in the light. They seemed to be having a good time, and there was no way in hell Lovino was going over there. Mainly because there were a lot of people crowding around that one single guy.

God, this night was going to suck.