Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or Killing Stalking, just the story.


"Dude, you should have been there! I pulled off the most righteous prank ever! With the help of a new friend, too!" Alfred clamors over to Gilbert and puts an arm around his shoulder, wide grin on his face. "I think you'd like him. I sure like him. He's kind of like us."

"Like we need another one of you two idiots." Romano sends them a dull look, unimpressed. He's secretly happy that he wasn't the target of their recent prank, but dreads the thought of there being a third in their party to help. It will make his days worse. He'll have to have eyes everywhere and he has no time to stress over stupid shit like that.

Al sticks out his tongue at the Italian like the growing adult he is, grinning at the platinum blond German next to him. "Whatta ya say, Gil? Wanna meet 'im?"

Gilbert grins at Romano, who he was just in the middle of pranking before Al came over. "Seems you get yourself a get-out-of-prank card, Lovino."

"Gee. Thanks." The Italian crosses his arms over his chest. "Can I go to class now with mio fratello and Kiku? It's too early in the fucking morning for this."

"Yeah, yeah." Gilbert waves him on. "You go. We'll be making other plans with our to-be-newest-member."

Sighing, Romano holds in a groan and shakes his head. "Do whatever you idiots want. I'm out of here." He turns on his heel and heads over to the other two who are waiting for him. Making sure that they really won't prank him this time, he peers over his shoulder and watches them walk off in the opposite direction. "Good. Don't want to walk in and have Arthur ridicule me from a stupid prank of theirs."

"It's not like he doesn't ridicule you already, fratello." Feli meets him half way with Kiku. "Now hurry! We'll be late!" He grabs Romano's arm and starts dragging him to the classroom.

"It won't be my fault! I can just drop Alfred's name and Arthur will give us a pass so he can scold Al later!" Which is true, he knows this. He and Arthur have gotten chummy over the month, which he denies, but the two have shared a few things when emailing or meeting in the English Department building offices. Romano had to visit the offices six times already for questions, advice for papers, and to just bother the Brit. He enjoys his time with the grumpy bushy browed man but won't ever admit it. "Don't need to drag me like a ragdoll, Feli!"

"Yes I do! Or you'll be late. I don't care if you might get a pass, there's a 50 percent chance you won't." Feli keeps pulling him along, keeping track of Kiku. "How many more minutes Kiku?"

"Exactly three minutes and twenty-four seconds."

"Dang, we still got time. Slow it down you two." Romano pouts, complaining in his head about how Feli never used to care about punctuality until now.

The two ignore him and they rush into class before Arthur could close the door. Arthur is now known for closing the door so who ever enters will be known to be late. To him, three tardies equal one absence, and since only two absences are not counted against anyone for the whole semester, people need to be careful.

The blond stands next to the door, watching the hands on his watch tick by. "Cutting it close, you three."

"We're sorry!" Feli expresses some relief though as he lets his brother go and goes towards his seat with Kiku.

"It's not like this is all that important." Romano rolls his eyes. "Your cousin was holding us up with one of his lame pranks."

"Bringing Alfred up will not get you out of being tardy, Mr. Vargas." Arthur stares at Romano with unimpressed eyes before grinning ever just a little bit for the Italian to see.

The brown haired man pouts with a small scowl. "Strict bastard."

The Brit raises a bushy eyebrow at the comment. "Would you like to be kicked out of class due to your fowl mouth?"

"Like your mouth is any cleaner." Romano grins. "I'll just take my seat. Might want to close the door before any tardy people slip in." Some people behind the Italian curse him silently as they try to sneak by. He snorts and walks over to his chair, peering over at the blond man before sitting down.

Arthur has a lopsided grin filled with amusement. Knowing the strict man, those who came in just now would still be marked tardy. He soon closes the door and goes to the podium, ready to begin class.

"Why must you challenge him, fratello?" Feli whispers.

"Because he's a jerk worth challenging," Romano answers quietly as he slouches in his chair, playing with his bag so he can grab his things out. Unlike how he acts, he's very diligent when he wants to be. In this particular class, he tries to go that extra mile because it's Arthur who's teaching. "He doesn't back down. It's fun. Not many people I knew or know now fight me on even ground based on just playful banter. Majority of the time, well, you know." He frowns as he sits up and begins writing a little for the start of the class. "People tend to get pissed at what I say and fight with anger."

The younger Italian thinks on that and smiles as he realizes it's true. "I'm glad you finally found someone who's sort of like you. Or at least understands that side of you."

Romano snorts, about to reply when something hits him square in the forehead. He blinks in slight surprise before focusing on what was thrown at him. A small eraser, or a rubber as Arthur would call it. He looks up at the culprit and sees the Brit grinning while holding a stern gaze. The Italian rolls his eyes, refraining from flipping him off since everyone is looking at him right now.

"Fine, I'll pay attention. What were you going on about again?"

Some students chuckle while others sigh in irritation at Romano's antics. Arthur shakes his head and turns back to the board behind him, continuing with everyone's attention on him again. At this moment, Romano pulls out his phone and snaps a picture of his lone middle finger, attaching it and sending it to Arthur's private email so as to not get into trouble with the school email. They exchanged private email addresses once some of their conversations got too personal for the school email. That was during the third week of the semester, which wasn't all that long ago. He makes sure to add a little, "This is for throwing the 'rubber' at me in class, ass-hole."

As the hour and thirty minutes of class passes, Romano takes his notes while also dealing with Arthur calling on him for some answers or to ask questions. Surprisingly, Romano has plenty of questions based on the readings they've done. Two or three other students as well, but he's the conversationalist in this class, which is another reason why he thinks Arthur puts up with his shit. Romano can fool around and be lazy, but he can be a serious student when he wants to be. Arthur always grins a little happily when he sees Romano raise his hand or just speak up when no one's talking. Romano likes sparking that flame behind the green irises Arthur has.

Class soon comes to an end and everyone packs up. Romano takes his time since his next class is a free class to spend time on creating a recipe for everyone to cook. Francis is an awesome teacher and Romano isn't afraid to say so, even if the man can be seriously loony.

"Go on ahead, you two," Romano says when he realizes Feli and Kiku are waiting for him. "You can go to your other classes. I have time to kill since my next class is basically a free period."

"Okay!" Feli smiles and waves, heading on out with his quiet Japanese friend.

As he finishes packing up, Romano notices Arthur standing at the front and staring at him, papers in his arms and a far off look. He raises an eyebrow as he knows that look all too well. Arthur wants something but is uncertain of asking for it.

"Oi," Romano calls to him, snapping the Brit out of his haze. "You need something?"

"Ah, no." Arthur straightens himself and gazes at Romano with a determined, neutral face. "Just thinking about upcoming projects."

"Right." Romano obviously doesn't believe him. "Why don't you stop spewing shit and just tell me what's up."

Arthur bristles with a pout, sighing as he caves in. "I was wondering if you'd ever be up for some afternoon tea with me."

The Italian's eyebrows rise up under his bangs in surprise. "Wow. To think a student professor would be asking for a student's time. A student who he's teaching."

Scowling, Arthur shakes his head. "Never mind. You may leave and do as you please."

He's about to walk off but Romano follows him out of the room and walks beside him. "I'm not much for tea but I could go for a good drink at a bar or pub."

Arthur looks at him warily, calculating and formulating. He soon grins. "I might accept that. Fair warning, I'm not the best drunk."

Romano snorts. "Neither am I." With his own grin, he nudges the other lightly with his shoulder. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"

That night Romano drinks with Arthur until he blacks out and they find themselves at Arthur's apartment. They still have their clothes on – which is a relief for the both of them - but sport massive hangovers. Each of them smile slowly, chuckling at their ridiculousness. Arthur makes sure to mention that just because they're on good terms doesn't mean he will be lenient with Romano being tardy or mouthing off in class. Romano remarks that he doesn't give a shit. It doesn't take much for them to realize that their rivalry is blooming into a nice friendship.


Note: Just so you know, both Antonio and Arthur are important character in Romano's life. That's why I'm going between the two with Romano in each chapter I create. Honestly, each chapter sort of writes itself out, so whatever happens and whoever is in it is entirely the story's doing. I love it when stories write themselves sometimes. But anyway, I've got this story planned out. The skeleton keeps building in my head and so far I could write all the chapters from this chapter to chapter 18 without a problem. From 18 on I still need to think about things that go one between everyone. All these events are happening over the first semester so far but I might have it where this story takes at least until Romano graduates and starts doing his own thing. In the end, this story is going to be the biggest one, and probably longest one, I've ever created for this fandom. I've wrapped up some major plot holes in the beginning but there might still be stuff in the middle and end that I'll need to think over, if there are any plots holes during those chapters. Anyway, I'll stop giving hints out as to how I'm doing with this story and what might go on.

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

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