Loving a Stranger

by altera vita mea

"You don't remember, but I know you. We were- I don't even know how to describe our relationship. That sounds bad, I know. I think you might have been in love with me, although I cannot see why. That's just what I've been told. I acted as though I hated you, but I never did. I was afraid, because you were kind to me. I didn't know I loved you until you forgot me..." Spamano

10. Chapter 10

Loving a Stranger

Chapter ten: Mixed Emotions

The month was October, and I was purposely lagging behind the others. I was not looking foreword to this.

"Lovino dear, hurry!" Antonio's mother urged, taking a brief second to fix her hat over her soft brown curls.

"Ja, hurry up, dearest Lovino!" Gilbert scoffed playfully, earning a sharp elbow to his gut from Francis. "Don't tease him, Gil," he chided. "He's just nervous because he hasn't seen Antonio in nearly ten weeks."

Dammit, my face was betraying me again! "Shut up!" I shouted, glancing nervously at Ms. Carriedo, hoping she wasn't believing any of the lies those two were telling. But then again, her son probably already told her everything. Great. Talk about fucking embarrassing- it was a wonder she didn't hate me. But she had been the one who invited me to join the rest of them for her son's graduation, and she had been nothing but sweet and caring to me. It reminded me of Antonio.

Actually, the more time I spent with her, the more similarities I made between Josefa Flores Carriedo and her son. They both had thick brown curls- although the elder's was colored a shade paler as it threatened to go gray, they shared the same bright, expressive green eyes, either of their laughs sounded so melodic and carefree, they were both so cheerful...And I digress...

The four of us made the trek through the crowds of Fort Jackson, following the flow of excited mothers, proud fathers, ecstatic spouses, crazed girlfriends, and rowdy friends to the bleachers. We somehow managed to find seats not too far in the back, and Antonio's mom ducked in quickly next to some lonely guy sitting by himself, gesturing for me to sit next to her. After me went Francis, and last and definitely least, Gilbert squeezed in on the end.

"Isn't this exciting?!" Ms. Carriedo nearly squealed. "Mi bebé pequeño, all grown up!"

"Mutter Josefa, the graduation won't be until tomorrow," Gilbert protested, smirking at the woman's enthusiasm.

She laughed, causing the guy next to her to glance her way- not in annoyance, but rather in interest. "I know, hijo. I can't help myself though! I haven't seen my boy in ten long weeks. I don't know what I would have done all alone if you and Francis hasn't come to see your second mother every so often."

The Frenchman beside me nodded with a smile. "Oui, Maman Josefa. We tried to get Lovino to come too, but he said he was busy."

I sent him a warning look. "I didn't want to impose," I grumbled. The other two were obviously closer to her than I was, always calling her mother and whatnot, and if I was thrown in it would just be awkward- kind of like it was now.

But I was the only one who thought that apparently. "Oh nonsense!" Ms. Carriedo exclaimed. "I love company, and you're such a dear Lovino, when you want to be. With my husband dead and Antonio out of the house it's been so quiet..."

I noticed that creep was staring again, but when I looked at him he turned around abruptly. Francis seemed to have caught it too, for he leaned closer to me and whispered, "Maman, I think that man wants to speak with you."

"Yeah," I added. "He keeps looking at you."

"WHAT GUY?" Gilbert hissed, not wanting to be out of the loop.

Ms. Carriedo's lips pursed for a second, and she turned toward the man, who was pretending to be preoccupied with his phone, and stuck out her hand. "Hola!" She said brightly, smiling at him. "My name is Josefa Fernandez Carriedo!"

The man jumped at her friendliness, turning back to her with a red face, glancing at the three of us like we would attack him if he made the wrong move. It was a valid conclusion actually. "I- nice to meet you," he stuttered, shaking her hand with an embarrassed air. "I'm Francisco Alberto Lisboa."

"What is up with all their super long names?" Gilbert questioned quietly as we eyed the two conversing adults.

"I recognize that accent!" Ms. Carriedo announced. "Portugal, right?"

"That is correct, Madame, and I would be a fool if I didn't know that you are from Spain." The man- I had already forgotten his name- seemed to be opening up.

"That's right!"

"Forgive me for asking," the man said shyly, "are you here for your spouse?"

Ms. Carriedo shook her head with a short laugh. "No, my husband died years ago. My son Antonio is graduating."

"I'm sorry," the man...he had the same name as some American city, right? Angeles? Diego? Oh, Francisco! Francisco said he was sorry as if he wasn't really that sorry and explained that his wife had passed giving broth to their youngest son, then suddenly jerked up. "Wait a minute. Did you say your son's name is Antonio?" At the nod, he continued excitedly. "No way! My son- João- he was combat buddies with him!"

"João? Oh, I think Antonio told me about him!"

"I think someone has a crush on Maman Josefa," Francis whispered.

I whipped around to stare at him. "You think so?" I questioned.

He nodded firmly. "Oui. This guy might end up being your father in-"

I elbowed him in the gut, causing those terrible words to die on his tongue. "Shut the fu-" I cringed, knowing Antonio's mom was right behind me. "Shut up."

Gilbert stared at me in wonder, quirking a single eyebrow as amusement danced in his eyes. "I think we should keep Mutter Josefa around. I've never seen Lovino watch that careless mouth of his. This is really awesome, kesesese!"

I glared at him, silently comforting myself by planning to kill the bastard when I got the chance.

Francis placed a hand on my shoulder- a stupid habit he has picked up over the past couple months. "He just doesn't want to make a bad impression," he explained. "He wants his future mother-in law to like him after all."

If only looks could kill... "You don't even know what you're talking about," I huffed, crossing my arms. It was ridiculous! I wasn't trying to impress anyone! I just didn't want Antonio's mother to hate me, for some odd reason. Because sometimes the most cheerful people could morph into demons toward the people they dislike- or some weird shit like that.

My attention was drawn to the front, as a sector of soon-to-be graduates marched up. "They're starting!" Ms. Carriedo exclaimed, the two adults swiveling in their seats to face the front. My heart pounded as I scanned the rows of identical crisp uniforms, shaved heads, standing at attention and silent as stone statues. Ms. Carriedo leaned forward in interest as some officer started talking, and Francisco glanced at her with a small smile before turning.

"They all look the same," Gilbert murmured, staring with his mouth slightly open. "How unawesome."

I shot him an irritated look. "Way to state the obvious, idiota."

"This is why I'll never go into the military. I wouldn't be able to handle looking as boring and bland as the rest of them!" Francis declared with a toss of his blond curls.

"Shhh!" Ms. Carriedo exclaimed, not taking her eyes off the...was it the drill Sergeant?

Francis quickly apologized and we returned our attention back to the front, just as the drill Sergeant or whoever it was said something along the lines of, "we are proud to say we have transformed your citizens into soldiers."

There was a murmur of approval that rippled through the audience, and I felt my blood chill. The way he had said it made it sound like this boot camp had succeeded in doing exactly what Francis had said- making them dull and boring. Like they had stripped each and every one of them of their individuality, and they were all as stoic as Berwald and as serious as Vash. Just thinking of Antonio without his stupid happy-go-lucky, oblivious personality caused an eery feeling to creep down my spine.

I found myself leaning forward, inching towards the edge of my seat, tuning out of the speech as I carefully looked through the rows again, trying to find that idiotic Spaniard. Do you have any fucking idea how hard that was? There was no damn difference in their clothes, their stance, their haircut, and those really detailed individual characteristics were too small to note from my seat. My gaze finally rested on a tall tanned guy and my breath caught in my throat. Could this be him? Unfortunately, I had no way to determine if it was or not, not from my distance, not with him staring straight ahead with absolutely no emotion.

Then, as if he could feel my stare, the guy actually made eye contact with me- wasn't there some rule against it? I swear my heart stopped for a second. He somehow picked me out from the crowd just like I had picked him out, and his eye brows shot up as his lips twisted into a subtle smile, just enough to break his stone-like facade. Only Antonio would be stupid enough to break ranks like that.

I wanted to glare at him for his rebelliousness, but a smile flitted onto my face as I waved slightly. His smile grew until I could nearly see those familiar dimples even from my seat, he nodded his head, then returned to his normal position before anyone else could catch him.

"Idiota..." I whispered.

Francis glanced at me curiously. "Hm?"

I tore my eyes away for a moment and blinked. "I found Antonio."

"Where?!" Ms. Carriedo hissed, touching my elbow.

I pointed, and the rest of them leaned forward, following my finger's direction, before they gasped and murmured in the affirmative.

"So that's why your face was getting all red!" Gilbert chuckled, attempting to be quiet. "I thought you were getting sick for a second."

I placed a hand on my feverish cheek, wishing the ground would just swallow me. "I hate you so much," I grunted. I could feel Ms. Carriedo's eyes on me in interest, and I squirmed from the attention.

"The eyes of lovers are like the eyes of the eagle," Francis was saying metaphorically.

Oh, it would have been so easy to reach over and wrap my fingers around his gullet, to squeeze it until that stupid grin vanished and was replaced by a look of horror as he turned blue. But that would be saved for a later time, when mother and son were reunited and too busy to notice anything else. For now, I had to take a different approach.

"That explains why you're always hawking on Arthur," I noted with a sly smirk on my lips.

Francis would normally laugh this sort of thing off without an effort, but today I could have sworn he blushed ever so slightly as he glanced to his lap. "I do that out of obligation," he murmured.

"Yeah, sure. Pretending to be his boyfriend is definitely an obligation."

"You really should just ask him out for real," Gilbert advised. "Look at the awesome me; I asked Lizzy out, and she's never been happier!"

Francis rolled his blue eyes and motioned for us to pay attention to the too long briefing.

I begrudgingly brought my eyes back to the front- only to make eye contact with a certain soldato idiota, who was once again staring at me. This time, I managed to frown at him and jerked my head towards the drill Sergeant in a silent order to do what he was supposed to do, to which he eventually complied.

I really couldn't tell you what the hell the briefing had actually been about, for the next thing I knew the soon-to-be graduates were dismissed and were weaving their way through the audience to their loved ones. "Where's Antonio?" Ms. Carriedo questioned, rising from her seat eagerly.

I had lost sight of him in the shifting crowd, but I thought I heard a loud, Portuguese accent coming towards us, saying something along the lines of, "I can't wait to meet your boyfriend!"

"I already told you we aren't dating..." a familiar Spanish accent responded.

The other laughed. "Bull! And I'm the President of Portugal! Toni, you've been talking about this guy nonstop since day one, almost obsessive-like, sort of like a high school girl talking about her crush."

By now, their voices were getting louder, and my face grew warm as I recognized the subject of their conversation. "I'm not that bad, and at least he came- unlike someone's love interest," Antonio sounded a bit indignant as the two made it through the crowd and walked toward us.

"Is it just me," Gilbert murmured. "Or am I seeing double..?"

It was true, Antonio's friend looked almost exactly like him, the only differences being the slight diversity in their skin tones, the Portuguese guy being nearly a head shorter than the Spaniard, as well as his eyes being more of a lighter green. The shorter decided to fire one last shot. "At least I wasn't the one getting into trouble during training because I was daydreaming."

"Okay, that happened only once-"

"ANTONIO!" Ms. Carriedo literally shrieked and almost trampled the rest of us as she stampeded through our row and engulfed her only child in a tight embrace, cooing over him in rapid Spanish that even I couldn't fully understand- and I was fluent in the language!

That Tomato Bastard hugged her back, allowing his easygoing smile to slip onto his face as he responded in Spanish that was only slightly slower paced. My heart pounded in my chest at the sight of him, my skin seemed to crawl with a strange warm sensation. What the hell is wrong with me? Maybe I actually am getting sick?

Francisco quietly slipped past us and wrapped an arm over his son's shoulder as the two conversed in their language.

The moment Antonio was out of his mother's hold, Francis and Gilbert were upon him, tackling him to the ground. "Kesesese! You're nearly as buff as I am! We had to use all our body weight to get you down!" Gilbert laughed as the two evil bastards stood up, the blonde one holding out a hand to assist their friend. "Long time no see, mon ami."

"Tell me about it," Antonio chuckled. "How are you guys? Things are getting interesting between you and Arthur, huh? And I heard you scored with Lizzy, Gilbert? That's-"

"Awesome, just like me, I know!"

João and Antonio took a brief intermission to introduce each other to their family, and I was simply standing there awkwardly, wondering if everyone had just forgotten about me(not that I gave a damn), when the tomato-obsessed idiot looked directly at me and sent me a smile that I'm sorry to say made my knees a bit weak.

"And there's my little Lovi!" He exclaimed as he practically lunged at me like a creepy predator, capturing me in his strong yet loving embrace before I could run. Dammit.

"Don't call me that, bastard!" I demanded, struggling in his grasp. "And let me go!"

He chose to ignore my protests as he nuzzled into my hair in an embarrassing manner. "But I missed you so much," he whined quietly. "And you're so cute!"

I didn't need a mirror to tell me how red I was. "No I'm not, you idiot! Stop being so weird, everyone's looking at us."

He slightly loosened his grip, but not enough to allow me to escape, and slipped a warm hand under my chin, tilting it up so that I was forced to look into his eyes, reacquainting myself with their beauty. If I could paint like my brother, those bright, rich green eyes would be the first thing I- wait a fucking minute. What the hell is going on in my brain?

"Are you ashamed of me?" Antonio was asking, pulling me away from my weird thoughts, a look of hurt flashing across his face. Oh shit, what have I done?

I panicked, not wanting to see him upset for some reason, and placed my hands on his chest to keep him from pulling away- but I thought I had wanted him to leave? "No," I said quickly, lowering my voice so that I wouldn't be overheard. I hate it when people eavesdrop. "I'm just ashamed of myself." Damn, he had no idea how true that statement was. I was beyond disappointed in myself for standing there with a face red enough to rival a tomato, for falling for something as stupid as a magnificent pair of eyes, for noticing the firm muscles from under his uniform(Gilbert had been right about him getting buff), for being torn between my emotions and my rational thoughts, and for acting no less than a hormonal high school girl.

Antonio smiled a little and seemed ready to say something, but we were interrupted by a certain short Portuguese guy, who practically shoved his hand in my face and forced Antonio and I to separate- to that I was grateful.

"Olá! You must be Lovino," he grinned. "I've heard a lot about you, believe me. I swear you are Antonio's favorite subject."

"I don't doubt that, certain idiots have a tendency to talk too much about nothing," I grumbled, sending said idiot an irritated look.

Antonio shook his head and made some lame ass excuse for being such an obsessive creep, while João continued to introduce himself, and I quickly learned that the latter was nearly as loud as Gilbert- but not as annoying, and although he love to poke jabs at the Spaniard, he still seemed like he would take a bullet for him if necessary. In all, I don't think I disliked him.

"Trust me," he was laughing after I made a comment about how Antonio simply took every insult his combat buddy threw at him. "I have enough blackmail on Toni to make him my personal slave for five years!"

Gilbert smirked in interest. "That's so awesome; you guys are practically brothers!"

That led to Antonio coughing out an "Eww," while João's eyes widened. "Those are dangerous words, meu amigo."

"But it just might become a reality," Francis commented, gesturing behind us to where the two adults had slipped back into easy conversation with each other, soaking in each other's presence like plants soak in energy from the sun.

Antonio couldn't help but smile. "They are kind of adorable."

His fellow soldier glared at him and waved a hand in his face. "What are you, retarded? We can't have our parents hooking up! Do you have any idea how sucky that would be?"

He planted his hands on his hips and turned to his father. "Hey Pai! Come on, I'll show you around, okay?"

Francisco nodded with a smile, then turned to Ms. Carriedo. "Would you and your family care to join us? It would be more fun with all of us together." Before either of their offspring could protest, Antonio's mother agreed with a such a sweet smile her son and his comrade instantly gave up on trying to break it up.

João decided that he was going to serve as the tour guide and led our company around the fort, explaining everything and revealing stories- mostly about Antonio- that had to do with nearly every area. Francis and Gilbert thought the stories were absolutely hilarious and stuck close to the other in order to catch every detail. The parents were next, chatting amongst themselves when nothing interesting was going on, yet hanging on to every word that had to do with their children's adventures and trials.

"You're just like your father," Ms. Carriedo murmured in wonder, slipping an arm around her son after a particularly detailed story of how Antonio had totally zoned out in the middle of training('probably thinking about Italians' was the suggestive words the storyteller used) and got in huge trouble with the drill Sergeant.

Then there was me, the antisocial deadweight, who trudged along in the back- wanting to be alone- but a stupid Tomato Bastard kept hanging around. I continuously glowered at him even though he didn't seem to notice it, and tried to get him to bother someone else in vain. He just wouldn't stop being stupid.

"Hey!" I hissed in a deathly whisper as he attempted to hold my hand. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Antonio started whining- again- and his eyes grew so wide and puppy like, forcing me to look away before I gave in. "Please Lovi?" He pleaded quietly, stealthily slipping an arm around my waist as I turned red for the fiftieth time that day. "I haven't seen you in so long!"

I glanced over to the others nervously. "Idiota. There are other people here."

"They're not looking," he pointed out. He was right, for we were in an area practically uninhibited, and everyone else was listening to a particularly long story João was telling.

I found myself leaning into Antonio's touch, much to my disgust. It wasn't like I actually enjoyed his affections, but this was the only time we'd be able to spend together until God knew when. I sighed slightly. "Fine. I'll amuse you, bastard. But just this on-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, he pulled me to his chest, tangled a hand in my hair, and interrupted me with a kiss. What the fuck?! I screamed internally. I never agreed to that, you sneaky bastard! Yet, my eyes eased closed as I leaned into him subtly, secretly enjoying the softness of his lips and those electric sensations they caused. The kiss didn't last much longer than the one at the airport had, but it seemed like an eternity to me.

"Bastard," I whispered softly as he pulled away with a dopey smile on his face. Antonio's eyes sparkled and he trailed his lips across my forehead gently. "I love you, mi tomate," he returned quietly, taking my hand again. I let him this time- I had suddenly grown tired of fighting him.

What the hell is wrong with me? I wondered again. I would have thought that ten weeks away from him would've helped me sort out my emotions, but I've never been more confused in my life.

---

Introductions:

João- Portugal

Tranlations

Ja(German)- Yes

Mi bebé pequeño(Spanish)- My little baby

Mutter(German)- Mother

Hijo(Spanish)- Son

Oui, Maman Josefa(French)- Yes, Mama Josefa

Hola(Spanish)-Hello

Idiota(Italian)- Idiot

Soldato idiota(Italian)- Idiot soldier

Mon ami(French)- My friend

Olá(Portuguese)- Hello

Meu amigo(Portuguese)- My friend

Pai(Portuguese)- Dad

Mi tomate(Spanish)- My tomato

---

A/N: I am so sorry! This chapter almost didn't make it up on time! But Toni is back for now, so you guys can forgive me, right?

And just so you all know, I've never actually been to a basic training graduation ceremony- but I did read up on it a ton! This chapter took place the day before the ceremony- a day known as Family Day, where the family gets to basically see what their loved ones went through throughout the last 10 weeks.

Anywho! Hope you all have a great Christmas! I gave you all a chapter, and all I ask for is something called a review. Pretty fair deal, right?

I love you all!

altera vita mea