This chapter is in Romano's POV. And yes. I understand how bad abuse is, but I wanted you to have a bad backstory for a reason. ABUSE IS WRONG.


That stupid idiot! After she threw up she just /had/ to go and pass out didn't she? Damn it, what a pain. And of course, since everyone else is too fucking lazy, I had to be the one to carry her to the nurse's office. I tightened my grip as I carried her bridal style down the empty hall. _ stirred slightly and instinctively pulled herself closer to my chest as I walked. I felt my cheeks burn harshly and it felt as if my heart skipped a beat. Tch...damn this girl. Why does she do this to me? She hasn't even been here a full fucking day either and she's already starting to have an effect on me. I like to argue with her, I like to be close to her-no! Snap out of it Romano. There's no way. I do /not/ like _. No fucking wa-..

"L-Lovino?"

My breath hitched in my throat and I directed my gaze to her as she fluttered her eyes open slowly. Her blue eyes were sparkling and they seemed to lock together with mine. Her brown hair brushed against her forehead and cheek softly. I gulped and my face increased in temperature. She, She looked so damn...

...

CHIGI!

"W-What happened?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and tried to regain my normal composure.

"You passed out after you threw up on my fucking /expensive/ shoes, donna." I snapped.

She frowned. "Oh..."

"Sì."

Surprisingly, she let out a soft laugh. "Sorry about that then. I guess that last blow really did some damage, huh?"

"Tch. I guess so. Just make sure it doesn't happen again!"

"Sheesh. What the hell is wrong with you? It's not like it was entirely my fault."

"Hell yeah it was!"

"Uh, sorry to burst your bubble, but hell no it wasn't!" She squirmed in my arms and I almost dropped her. She let out a gentle gasp and pulled herself up. I closed my eyes so I won't make eye contact with her again and my arm muscles tensed.

"Um, Lovino?"

I cracked one eye and open and nearly stumbled backwards letting out a pathetic yelp. Our face were mere inches from each other! I cleared my throat and quickly put her down on her own feet. I grabbed her arm and threw it over my shoulder then wrapped my arm around her waist.

"Santo diavolo, che è stato troppo fottutamente vicino...(Holy hell, that was too fucking close)" I mumbled to myself so she wouldn't hear.

"What?"

"N-Nothing! Let's go."

We began walking again and all I could focus on was the floor. Minutes passed and I still haven't looked up. Dio, that was embarrassing. My nose rammed into something hard and I nearly fell on my ass.

"Ouch damn it! Che male(that hurt)!"

_ stood at my side and laughed. "You should've been paying attention to what's ahead of you instead of the floor and you wouldn't have bumped into the wall."

"And you just decided to /let/ me run into it?" I growled.

She raised her finger to her chin in a taunting manner and I grit my teeth behind my closed lips.

"Pretty much~."

"Cagna." Before she could respond, I pulled her forward and we walked into the front office. A woman was sitting at the front desk and she looked up from her computer as we walked in.

"Yes? Can I help you?"

"She needs to see the nurse. She threw up in P.E. and she passed out." I answered bluntly.

"Oh dear. I'll go get her then. Take her to her office and the nurse'll be with you in a moment."

"Grazie."

We walked into the nurse's office and I set _ down on the small bed thing they have for people who need to rest or what the hell ever they do in here. I settled down in a chair on the opposite side of the wall and sighed heavily.

"Such a pain in the ass..."

"Thank you Lovino..."

I blinked in shock and gazed at her, who seemed to be conflicted with something. "Cosa?"

"I said...thank you. For, you know, bringing me here. It was nice of you."

I sat there silently. How the hell can I respond to that?

"Lovino? Why are you just sitting there gaping?"

"Oh. U-Uhh...Prego." I managed to say. Chigi! What the hell is wrong with me!? I can't even speak anymore! My brain is hurting from all of this and so I slammed my head against a nearby counter to see if that would help. Not my fucking brightest idea ever...

"Owwwww...!"

"You idiot! Why'd you do that? That's not exactly the softest material ya know!" She shouted at me and that didn't exactly help at the moment.

"Honestly, I don't even know why I did that so...zitto! Your yelling and insulting me isn't helping." I huffed. I reached up and touched my forehead. I pulled it back after a moment and saw a bright red liquid smeared on my fingers and hand. Who knew slamming your head on a counter edge would split your head? I'll be surprised if I don't need stitches. "Damn..."

"A-Are you bleeding?" I heard _ ask. Her voice cracked and I blinked at her.

"Hm? Oh, sì." I opened the cabinets to see if I can find any bandages or gauges I can put on my head. My vision blurred for a moment and I felt dizzy. "Ugh..."

"H-Here! I'll get it. You sit down." She spoke quietly. She put her hand on my shoulder and made me sit down in the chair I sat in earlier. I nodded and watched her intensely as she opened up drawers and cabinets. Something is...off...about her.

"Oi. Are you alright?" She didn't answer. She took out a small white box and started rummaging through it. She managed to find a few rags and a gauge to wrap around my head.

"I'll c-clean your wound and then rub some ointment on it s-so the wound won't get any worse. Then put on the gauge, o-okay?" Her voice was quivering and she refused to look at me. I'm actually starting to worry..

"_..."

She ran a rag under cold water in the sink and let out a heavy sigh. She wrung out the water then ordered me to lie down on the bed thing. I did without arguing. If she's acting like this, something must be up. She made her way over to me and began to dab my wound with the wet rag. I winced at the pain when it stung me, but bit my tongue to hold back any curses that might slip out. I noticed that the rag was beginning to stain with blood and _'s eyes were widened with...fear? Is that fear I see in her eyes?

"_. What the hell is wrong with you? You're acting distant all of a sudden!" I shouted. I instantly took it back when I saw a tears escape her eyes and she raised her arms above her head protectively. She dropped the rag in her hand and it hit the ground with a wet, squish sound.

"I-I'm sorry! Don't hit me!" Don't hit her? Why would she think I'm going to hit her?

"Why would you think I'm going to hit you?" I asked in a surprisingly gentle tone.

She didn't answer. Well, more like she /couldn't/ answer. Her arms were still over her head and she let out small whimpers with tears silently running down her cheeks.

"Answer me! I'm worried about you for fuck's sake!" I raised my voice again and grabbed her wrists to pull them away from her head. She wanted to scream, I could tell, but instead she flailed and tried to get out of my grip.

"N-No! Stop dad!" I froze. W-What? Dad?

"_. _! SNAP OUT OF IT!" I regretfully let my hand off of her wrist and slapped her hard across her tear-stained cheek. Her eyes widened, but she seemed to have broken from her trance. I broke contact and she lifted her hand to graze it over her, I'm guessing, stinging cheek. "Are you...okay now?" I asked carefully and looked down at my hand. I...I can't believe I just slapped a woman..

She was silent for a moment before nodding her head. "Y-Yeah. I-I'm okay now..."

"Buono..." I whispered. I ran a hand through my hand, then stopped. "Shit! Now I probably got blood all in my hair!"

I heard _ suck in her breath through her teeth. "I-I can still finish cleaning that wound i-if you want." I shook my head.

"No. I'll get it."

"B-But.." I glared at her and she shut her mouth.

"I said. I'll get it."

_ glared back at me for a moment and I almost smiled. It's a bit good to know the old her is returning. I like her better than the frail, vulnerable, _.

...

Wait. Did I just say I like her?

...

Alright fine! I guess I do. Only a tiny fucking bit though! Happy now? Damn it..

...

I finished wiping the blood from my head and then I rinsed my hair in the sink. I had _ help me wrap the gauge around my head, and when we were done we sat next to each other.

"So...what happened to you?"

"I-I..."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to ya know." I muttered. My cheeks burned and I stared at the wall to my left.

"I think you have a right to know Lovino. At least a little bit.." I snapped my head in her direction as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. "Well, when I was about 6, I lived with my family in Virginia. We had a good life at the time, you know? Small town, good house, I was an only child so we had a lot of opportunities to do things as a family. But...that all changed when I was 8.." She started shaking and I awkwardly put my arm around her shoulder. She looked at me in slight confusion and I scowled.

"I'm trying to be nice. Don't look at me like that damn it."

"Oh. Okay.." She leaned towards me and rested her head on the crook of my neck. I gulped, but she continued before I could say or do anything. "My mom and I were walking to the store so we could ingredients for dinner that night. When we were in the middle of shopping, it started storming outside. Really bad. And since we only lived a few minutes from the store, we walked there. The rain was so heavy that we couldn't even see 5 feet ahead or around us..." A few tears brimmed her eyes and I had the urge to wipe them away before she shed them. "Since we couldn't tell what our surroundings were and how late it was...around 10, we had no idea it was coming. I was ahead of mom so I couldn't see it. I heard her shout over the rain, and before I knew it, I was roughly shoved out of the way as a truck sped down the road. I-I watched in horror as my mom died before my own fucking eyes!" I pulled her closer as _ began shaking violently. Yet she still continued. "T-Then it wasn't long a-after that that my father started...d-drinking. He became abusive. Then one night, the last night I was going to b-be with him...I planned to run away that night...he-he pulled a knife on me. I was 11 at the time. He left a gash on my shoulder a-and it scarred me so mentally that...if I ever see a deep cut with a lot of blood...it triggers t-that memory..." Her face fell and she turned to me, gripping my shirt in a fist. I could feel my shoulder growing wet with her tears.

"I-I'm so sorry _. I had no idea..." I whispered and wrapped my other arm around her, pulling her closer. She cried harder and it felt as if my heart was being ripped into shreds with every tear that escaped her eyes.

"L-Lovino? Thank you."

"Cosa?"

"F-For listening. Even though we d-didn't get along the best w-when we first met, I think...I managed to create a friendship with you, right?"

I didn't answer for a minute. I closed my eyes and thought about it. "Yeah. A friendship."

"That's good..." Her voice sounded drowsy and I could tell she wanted some sleep. I can't just leave her here! B-But there's only one bed and..-!

...fuck.

"Hey. Let's get some sleep okay? We still have plenty of time left in school."

No answer.

"_?" A soft snore reached my ears and I pulled away from our embrace to see that she fell asleep on my shoulder. "Fantastico.." I grumbled. I shifted and slowly lied down with her head resting on my chest. I sighed and closed my eyes again.

Friends. At least that's a start right? Better than hating her. I mean, she's right. Why should we hate each other for the rest of the year if we're going to see each other the whole time?

...

Friends.

...

Why don't I like the sound of that word to describe us?