I apologies for not getting this up sooner, but I hit a bit of a blockade, along with a project that i still haven't finished, so i thought it best to finish one sub plot and get back to the main story line next chapter... Massive thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, added and so on, as well as told me about mistakes! As a side note i will be starting my last year of school soon, but i should still be posting regularly!

Ch.12 Rico Tomato~!

New Year's eve:

"Whack Higher!

"Wham Faster! Da~ze"

" Smack Are you even listening Matt?"

" Wham! Better!" Yong Soo instructed Matthew. For the last two days, all four of them had been training like mad. Koaru had began to instruct them all in the basic skills in hacking, Yong Soo was teaching them martial arts, Romano was explaining how the mafia and underground scenes worked, and Matthew filled in everything else.

Right now it was Muy Thai, and Matthew was two minutes from dropping dead. Yong Soo was relentless with training! It was almost worse than when Tomas was his teacher. His legs were killing him and he could have sworn he was sweating blood.

"Stop slacking Da~ze! You can do better than that!"

"Yong Soo! You slave driver damn it! Let him rest! You've been pushing us non stop!" Romano yelled across the training room. Both he and Koaru were sitting on a side bench, holding packs of ice to various sore body parts. "You're going to kill one of us soon you boob grouping bastard!"

"You do realize brother, that we are not used to training 20 hours of the day." Koaru mumbled behind an ice pack.

"Oh come on you two! Matthew is fine and he's been working twice as long as you guys have da ze~!"

Thud! Matthew was now on the floor, passed out from exhaustion.

Romano smacked Yong Soo upside his head. "SEE! I told you, you're pushing him too far!"

Matthew woke up a few hours later, a cold washcloth placed on his eyes. Sitting up, he noticed he was the only one in the room.

"Koaru and Yong Soo left to go celebrate new years with their family." Romano walked in, munching on a bit of Christmas Fudge, Kumajirou was nibbling on his own piece. Really his friends were going to make his pet fat. Er, fatter.

"Thanks Romano, you going out tonight?" Matthew layed down, the cool cloth against his eyes felt great.

"Nah, everyone acts like idiots around tonight."

The two sat in silence for a while.

"So when were you going to tell me that you were crushing hard on Antonio?"

Romano turned, "H- HOW DID YOU KNOW?"

"The only thing that would make it more obvious, was if you had a sign around your neck saying 'Hopelessly in love: Please Feed me.'" Matthew

Romano just stared at Matthew. "Was it really that bad?"

"Hopelessly, heart wrenchingly, vomit inducingly evident." The blond chided.

Romano pulled his legs up to his chest.

"Why are you so scared of love Romano? I know you well enough to know that you're nothing but passion and fire. So why are you pushing him away?"

"I-I-I" Romano was as red as a tomato at this point. The words just weren't coming out!

"Ah." Matthew smirked. "You're afraid of the prospect of him hurting you or what could happen if you two ever broke up."

"S-STOP THAT MIND READING BIT!" The Italian slammed a massive pillow into his friends face. "It freaks me out."

"Mhmn~ You didn't deny it." The blonds smile grew.

Romano just hugged his legs closer. Stupid Maple bastard figured him out, but that Tomato idiot couldn't?. !

Matthew groaned. "Romano-" He was reminded of the first time he met his hot tempered friend. The wrong words would only agitate the Italian, not get his butt in gear. "This guy's been asking you out for years. If he's taken your verbal and physical abuse for so long, I think he's damn serious of making you two last for as long as possible."

Romano looked like he was mulling it over.

"Besides if you don't say yes, someone else might take him."

Click That did it. Romano bolted upright, grabbed a scarf from Matthews coatrack and headed out the front door.

Then ran back inside, and slid back into the living room, "Where is he?"

"He's apparently looking pathetic, staring longingly at his phone by the fountain in the city square. " Matthew turned to face Romano, "Francis put it as Antonio's Face Crack status."

"Thanks!" Romano was gone in two seconds flat.

Antonio stared at his phone, the led screen staring up at him. Romano's grandfather said he wasn't home, and he didn't know his cell number, so his plans of sweeping Romano off his feet on New Years day were shot down. The Spaniard felt like crying, his one true love was MIA on one of the most romantic days of the year! And he still couldn't figure out why he didn't want to go out with him! The two had known each other for years! Sure Antonio thought he was a brat at first, but after a while, he just recognized that it was just his way of showing his affection. He really truly loved him. Why couldn't the other see that?

The brunet was just about to get up and drown his sorrows in liqueur, ice cream and reality tv, when he heard someone call his name.

"ANTONIO!"

He turned to find a winded Romano, leaning on his knees, gasping for air.

"Romano?"

"Y-You still up for that date?" He gasped out.

You could have sworn Antonio could have exploded from happiness. Without warning, the Spaniard raced to where Romano was, picked him up and spun him around, laughing all the time.

"Lovi Lovi~! You really mean it? !"

"Ah-! Yes! Just stop spinning me!"

"Opps! Sorry Lovi!" Antonio placed him down and gave the younger a blinding grin.

"Lovi?" Romano asked.

"It's my nick name for you! That ok?"

Romano blushed, "It's fine tomato bastard."

"Aw~! You're blushing Lovi! Just like a tomato!" Antonio nuzzled his date, on cloud nine just being near the boy.

"Sh-SHUT UP TOMATO JERK!" Romano blushed even harder, but made no move to push the Spaniard away. The two young men made their way into the square, holding hands.

Matthew layed on his couch, content with the world, glad that one of his best friend was finally being somewhat honest with himself. He was just about to go to sleep when…

"Oh crap my bike!"

Two days later and he remembers XD. Well, hope this wraps up Romano's sub plot nicely, reviews are liked, and thank you for reading thus far! we get back into the main plot next chapter, which will be posted before my birthday (before september starts, ill give you that XD)