Mellow! Not sure where my beta is this time, but I'm hoping for her come back to the fan fiction world soon. For now I have a good internet buddy looking this stuff over. I'm still working on updates for Growing Tomatoes, I swear that it's almost done but we'll see if I can get it finished all the way today. Enjoy the story!

Thanks for reviews:

Mona Lisa's Balled, Bookslover21, Blackwind137, and Anakin-Jason-Skywalker-Kenobi, Sparklybutterfly42, and 5-STAR

Chapter 10

"How much longer?" Lovino asked again. It was hotter than the swinging gates of hell outside, far too hot in Lovino's mind. Plus, they had been walking for what had felt like forever down a trail that lead past the fields and through a hell of a lot of trees.

"Shouldn't be that much farther." Antonio sounded like he was a little annoyed.

"What do mean that you don't know?" Lovino said, a bit angry that the man wasn't giving him a straight answer. "Tomato bast-" Lovino paused in the middle of the word, the taste of soap still very acute in his mouth for that having been hours ago.

Antonio let the slip of tongue slid, "I do know, but it has been a long time." Lovino wasn't sure if he was meaning the walk itself or since the Spaniard had been there himself. He remembered hearing that Antonio had been away from home before gaining Southern Italy. "Wait, there it is!" Without much warning at all, the man ran ahead leaving Romano in the dust.

"Oi, Wait!" Lovino called and burst into a run as well. Damn, that guy was strange.

"Well hurry up, Lovino!" Antonio said smiling as he reached the edge of the water. The man proceeded to step into the water to cool his feet down as he waited. "The water feel so nice."

"Of course it does." Lovino scoffed, annoyed at the obvious statement. "It's fucking hot out."

"Language," Antonio said in a warning tone, however he didn't look too angry.

It didn't take either of them long to strip down and enter the cool water. Their discarded cloths and a basket rested back just far enough that the water wouldn't bother it. Inside the basket was food for lunch so that they wouldn't have to cut the day short, Lovino was the one that came up with that one.

Lovino had been enjoying the water, his eyes half closed. The sneak attack of water that hit the back of his head took him by surprised. The teen turned around quickly, Antonio smirked at him. Lovino wasn't letting that go, he splashed back. And so the water fight had begun.

Lovino pouted at bit because Antonio was a better and faster swimmer. He figured that the man would be, but still wasn't fair.

Finally they stopped swimming for a bit to eat lunch, which was sandwiches and a large number of tomatoes. "Oi Lovino, how much education have you had?" Antonio asked finishing off his second sandwich.

Lovino hadn't been expecting that. He paused and nibbled on his lip a bit, in thought. "I can read and write okay in Italian and German." Mostly for his own sake he keep in practice with Italian, not that Austria discouraged either langue ever. "I didn't really take lessons much when I was with Grandpa, he taught me himself at random times." That took a bit of a stretch of the mind to remember what exactly his grandfather taught him, besides astronomy that is. "And I didn't learn that much at Austria's place either." School had never really been for Lovino anyways, he was a bit too lazy for that kind of work.

Antonio looked to be a bit confused, "I would've thought that Austria had a private tutor for you and your brother."

Lovino blushed stupidly, "He did, I just skipped lessons sometimes." Or possibly, extremely often. Although Lovino received punishment for it a multitude of times, much like his swearing issue Austria had no luck.

"We'll come up with what subjects you are to learn later and we'll see in town if there is anyone that can teach you in town." Antonio replied smoothly. "I expect you to attend lessons, no running off. Got it?" He said as a bit of precaution to teen

Lovino knew he shouldn't have told the truth. "Si. I won't."

"Good," Antonio smiled and looked for the sun's placement in the sky. "I think it's about siesta time."

That's something that Lovino could never argue with. Siesta time was one of the only good things about living with Antonio. Or at least that's what he wanted to believe.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Hetalia!~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lovino stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He had a good dream, couldn't remember any of it though. A small smile graced his face.

Lovino glanced around for a moment. Was that a cat he heard? He listened for another moment, now he didn't hear anything. The boy saw a log bobbing, but there didn't seem to be a cat around. Maybe it was his imagination after all.

Then the mewing started again. Lovino got up and walked around, trying to find the source of the noise, since the Spaniard was still asleep he wouldn't be embarrassed. Like hell was he going to let Antonio know that he was searching for a cat that may or may not be real.

The teen squinted at the log, it seem to have a dark figure that wasn't part of it on it. He ran in the water, trying to get a better look. Yep, that was a cat with cream fur and a brown spot on its head. Damn it, Lovino knew that he had to rescue it.

The log wasn't so far out that Lovino couldn't touch the bottom of the lake, so this was going to be pretty easy. At least that's what he thought until he was scratched repeatedly by said cat.

"Fuck! Stop that." Lovino said, not that the cat listened. He tried holding it closer to his chest to hopefully calm it down.

On the bank, Antonio was finally waking up as well. Lovino cursed to himself again, this was going to look weird. "Lovino?" Antonio called, apparently he didn't see Lovino yet.

"Si." Lovino gasped as the at delivered a particularly stinging cut on his right arm. He was almost out now, good thing he was getting sick being sliced up. "Ah, fuck! You bastard cat, I saved you."

"Lovino?" Antonio looked bewildered to say the least. "What's going on?"

The pissy cat had enough, it jumped out of the teen's now slightly bleeding arms and hissed. Lovino glared at it and explained so that it wasn't so awkward "That stupid cat was crying while clinging to a log. I think it got stuck out there."

Antonio smiled, he looked to be a little impressed. "Nice, Lovino. I think I can forgive that little bit of swearing for that."

Lovino blushed, damn this whole thing was weird. "Yeah, whatever." he grumbled.

The dripping wet cat licked at it's fur, it still seemed to have a frown on its little furry cat. Suddenly a white and brown cat came running up mewing. It seemed to be talking to the other, which only got it hissed at.

Antonio chuckled, "Looks like there's two of them now."

The boy crouched down to play with the cat, he had one before but that was a long time ago. He lightly stroked the cat that he had saved. Annoyed the cat batted at his hand. "Hey!" Lovino scolded.

Antonio took the other cat and played with him. "Eres un lindo gato." Lovino didn't have any idea what that meant, but he figured he was talking to the cat. Funny thing was both the Spaniard and the cat seemed to share the same shade of emerald green eyes.

Lovino mindlessly pet the cat for a few more minutes, but he realized that there was little chance of getting to keep the cat. It was best not to stay attached to anything or anyone anyways. He gently shoved the cat, "You need to get going."

"Why not take it home with you?" Antonio said like that was perfectly normal.

"Idiot, you can't just take in stray cats," Lovino muttered, but was considering what Antonio had said.

"Why not? I'm taking little Maccario home." Antonio replied.

"What? You already named it?" Naming animals was one of the worst things you can do because then you have to take them home. "But then you'll get attached." Lovino pushed the cat again.

Antonio looked at the teen, "There's nothing wrong with getting attached." He seemed to think for a moment, "If you don't want the cat, you can leave him here."

Lovino bit his lip, he was about ready to say yes. It his guardian was cool with it there should be no problem. He couldn't do it though. "I don't want the stupid cat, it looks silly," he lied.

"Fine, I guess Maccario is the only one coming home with us." Antonio as if it didn't mean anything.

Lovino went quiet for a moment, he was feeling homesick again. He wasn't sure why something as simple as a cat made him feel that way. Maybe, if Antonio let him that is, cooking would cheer him up a bit. "Can I cook dinner tonight?"

"Si," Antonio answered, looking fairly happy to hear Lovino offering to cook. "What did you have in mind?"

A meal from home would be the best. "I don't know, Tortellini?" Lovino murmured shyly. He didn't know why he felt shy now, it's not like the smiley bastard even mattered that much.

Antonio shot the lad a big grin, "Sounds good." The man looked like he was thinking deeply for a moment. "Going to make me do the dishes tonight?" He teased.

Lovino didn't mind the teasing, but he wasn't in the mood to play along. "Just felt like cooking."

Not that he would admit it, but Lovino did have a good time. It had been a while since he had a day when nothing went wrong. Maybe living with Antonio wasn't too bad, after all he had a lot worst before.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Translations~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eres un lindo gato- You're a cute cat. (Spanish)