Anyone Else But You
A few weeks of more practice and even more complaints from Romano have passed and it's finally time for the talent show that both the Spaniard and Italian have poured some tears, not so much blood and occasional sweat into. Obviously, they weren't the only ones performing seeing that this was, after all, a talent competition and to bring home some bacon, they needed to win some of the votes from their beloved judges.
The auditorium of Gakuen Hetalia was pretty much filled with students, parents and other family members, waiting to see their loved ones bare their talents on the stage. However, backstage was where a lot of panicking was happening.
"Where the bloody hell is that hamburger git? He's supposed to be my bloody assistant! Why does that ridiculous boy like to ruin things for me?"
"Have no fear, Mr. Eyebrows! The hero is here!"
"Ve~"
"We've got to practice a bit more, Ludwig-san and Feliciano-san."
"Pasta~ Ve~ we've practiced too much, Kiku! My legs hurt."
"I'm so awesome! You're all going to lose and bow down to me by the end of the night so why do you even want to try competing with my awesomeness?"
Antonio, on the other hand, was attempting to poke Lovino's cheek seeing that neither had wanted to practice any longer. Lovino, unluckily, noticed the Spaniard's attempts and instantly slapped Antonio's hand.
"Why the fuck were you trying to do that?"
"It's because you look like some really squishy tomato that I would just love to eat up but can't," Antonio admitted and pouted.
"5 minutes 'til the show starts!" A Canadian boy whose name they couldn't even remember yelled in the middle of all the noise. It was a miracle that he could actually be heard.
"Aniki! Did you know that talent shows originated from Korea?"
"That's a lie, aru. And also, stop trying to claim martial arts came from your country!"
"But it did!"
A lot more chatter could be heard and the noise couldn't be toned down by any of the backstage staff.
"SHUT UP EVERYONE! The program's starting in a bit so please just shut up!"
Everyone turned to the voice's direction and it turns out that it was no one else but the Canadian kid.
"WHOA I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD DO THAT MATTIE!"
Ah right. Matthew was his name.
"Well, could everyone just line up properly according to the order of performance? As you can see, Hong Kong here has posted the order on that wall over there so could you all please peek at the list and line up or else we're taking you off the list!"
A certain albino who was "very awesome" stared at the kid who had just given orders. Well, the kid was pretty cool. He took note that he should get to know the kid more since he seemed awesome, but of course, a little less than he was.
Claps could be heard from the audience as the principal of Gakuen Hetalia had just given his opening remarks. The talent show was finally about to begin.
First was a magic show from Arthur Kirkland together with his assistant, Alfred Jones. Everyone found this quite odd, seeing that this hero always wanted to be the center of attention. However, they still did some superb magic tricks, however, Arthur had gotten distracted in the middle of it since for some reason, he had seen his unicorn friend galloping down the aisle, which caused him to chase it, and this made Arthur seem quite delusional.
The next one was a pretty provocative dance number from none other than Francis Bonnefoy and a couple of back-up dancers. Most parents had frowned in disgust and had tried to shield the eyes of some of the younger siblings of some of the performers who were unfortunately part of the audience at that time. After a while, the principal had cut the performance and told Francis politely to get off the stage.
After that scene, Gilbert followed with his rap about his awesomeness and how he was better than everyone and that everyone just loved him because of his awesomeness. Most of the audience raised an eyebrow and they just let him finish his performance, and which the judges just shrugged off.
After this, Roderich played a beautiful piece on his instrument, the piano. The judges seemed to approve of his performance seeing that it truly showed off the Austrian's skills.
It was finally going to be Antonio and Romano's turn after Roderich's performance.
"Are you ready?" Antonio asked.
"Let's just win this shit, alright?"
Antonio smiled. It was just so typical of Lovino. The pair went onstage with both of their guitars and stared into the blackness that was the audience.
"Umm…I'm Antonio Fernandez Carriedo and this is my friend Lovino Vargas and we'll be singing a song for all of you called Anyone Else But You which is originally sung by The Moldy Peaches. I hope you guys enjoy this," Antonio said and ended his mini-speech with a smile, which made some of the girls in the audience drool or catch their breath because of the charming Spaniard.
Lovino let out a small "tsk" because he had managed to see a few members of the audience drooling or practically fangirling because of his partner. Antonio gave the boy the signal to start and sure enough, both started strumming. Lovino started off with the song.
You're a part time lover and a full time friend
The monkey on you're back is the latest trend
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Romano just couldn't wait until they got offstage so he could punch the bastard for choosing such a gay song. Honestly, they weren't part time lovers—the bastard just dreams to be one. He twitched as Antonio sang the next part of the song.
I kiss you on the brain in the shadow of a train
I kiss you all starry eyed, my body's swinging from side to side
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
What the hell. The one and only time they had kissed felt like the stupid bastard was raping him. And okay, maybe he did like it a bit. But it was just so gay and wrong that Lovino just had to hate him so much for it.
Meanwhile, Antonio felt quite smug. He could tell that the boy was feeling somewhat insecure, which was typical and really cute. He just couldn't wait to hug Lovino later backstage. Lovino interrupted his thoughts as he continued with the song.
Here is the church and here is the steeple
We sure are cute for two ugly people
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
He was not marrying the bastard, never in a million years. And the bastard wasn't cute…unless he was giving him tomatoes or cooking for him or doing his homework for him or doing all the things he didn't want to do. God, the song was just pissing him off. He couldn't wait to go backstage and slap the life out of Antonio.
The pebbles forgive me, the trees forgive me
So why can't, you forgive me?
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Antonio was so tempted to laugh at this particular verse of the song. It was just too true. He could tell that Lovino was never letting this go and was going to make him do all of his homework and he was going to force him to cook for him. But he'd do it anyway, because he loved his little tomato.
I will find my nitch in your car
With my mp3 DVD rumple-packed guitar
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
God, this song made Lovino seem like Antonio's freaking damsel. And he was clearly far from being a girl. He was not gay for Antonio, damn it. The song was just too gay. Both of them sang the next part and their voices blended quite amazingly.
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu du
The judges all had smiles on their faces which made both happy. After all, this meant that they might win the contest, since the judges seemed quite pleased with their performance. Lovino continued the next part of the song.
Up up down down left right left right B A start
Just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not smart
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Lovino really had the urge to punch the stupid Spaniard who was going to sing the next verse.
You are always trying to keep it real
I'm in love with how you feel
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
It sounded like the stupid Spaniard was speaking to him through the stupid song. And it was just too cheesy that Lovino really wanted to stop and walk out of the stage. But he had to do this. He promised the stupid tomato bastard, after all. And he was kind of scared of him leaving just because he was too unbearable.
We both have shiny happy fits of rage
You want more fans, I want more stage
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Damn it, if the tomato bastard had anymore fans, he would rip all of those stupid girls' hair out of their scalps and punch the bastard's guts out. The tomato bastard, even if he was one, was his bastard, and his alone. Those stupid fangirls were never getting him, or even near him.
Don Quixote was a steel driving man
My name is Antonio I'm your biggest fan
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Lovino could feel his face warm up. Stupid cheesy lyrics and stupid tomato bastard. But anyway, the song was about to end and Lovino sang the second to the last verse, which he thought was a pretty neat verse.
Squinched up your face and did a dance
You shook a little turd out of the bottom of your pants
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you
Obviously, he loved this verse because it just described how stupid the tomato bastard was, with turd at the bottom of his pants. He wanted to burst out laughing so hard. They were finally ending the performance as they both sang the last verse of the song.
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu
Du du du du du du dudu du
But you
The crowd roared and Antonio's fans were squealing with glee, imagining that he had just sung his verses just for them. Lovino pouted and quickly exited the stage. Antonio flashed one last smile to the audience as he followed Lovino quickly.
"Lovi, is there anything wrong?"
"How can you honestly tolerate all of those stupid fangirls of yours? It's annoying how they always scream and they're all like 'Ah! Antonio, you're too hot' or 'OMG Antonio please marry me'. Stupid, girly creatures!"
"Eh, Lovi, you're always going to be special, you know. Because you're my little tomato! Why else would I have asked you to sing that song for me in front of the whole school?"
"Because you needed a partner and I just have a nice, 'sweet' voice? Gods, I don't know, Antonio! Some screw in that loony head of yours must have gotten loose!"
"Well, okay. Partly, because you have a nice voice but hey, the biggest reason must be because you're my tomato. And I really really really love you."
"Stupid tomato bastard."
"Why Lovi?"
Lovi tiptoed to reach Antonio's cheek and gave him a quick kiss.
"Awww Lovi. You're too cute!"
"Don't you dare tell anyone about this or else I'm killing you!"
"Sure you will."
"No really, I will, you bastard."
"Ti amo, Lovi," Antonio said, all smiles and feeling all warm and happy.
"Whatever bastard."
FIN
Author's Note
Finally done with this chapter! It's so horribly long and I never mentioned who won, but eh. I guess I'll leave that up to all of you. I'm finally on break now! I'll be updating Unreasonable next, probably. It's just that I'm too lazy to type it all down but I've written the chapter on a notebook already.
You can notice which pairings I generally ship from here, but obviously, those aren't all of the pairings I ship. But yeah, those are probably the seconds to my OTP, which might forever be Spamano. 8-D
Anyways, I hope you guys liked this! Please leave me a review and I'll gladly reply to them :-D