Good grief, this fic is over a year old. -fireworks- Let's hope it doesn't take me another year to finish it.

This is Pt. 2 of Reluctance :3 Tino POV. I usually don't switch POVs like this, but I think you could see it better this way. Ready?

By the way, Aleksandra is an OC. I usually hate OCs but I thought it was fitting.

I don't own Hetalia.

Now tell me how I got into this mess. Even hanging with the definitely-not-sober children of my ex-boss was better than what I'd gotten myself into. The thing with me is...The issue here is my lack of social skills. Though I'm bad with even the people I'm close to, the ones I have no connection with were the worst. You can definitely put Kiku in that group.

Honestly, I didn't know what to think of the guy. He didn't like him and I didn't hate him. He seemed decently polite and mild-mannered, not one to pick random fights with people like a certain someone I know. I'd never seen him raise his voice, and even that one time he got super pissed at Antonio...He kept his shit together pretty well. If I didn't know any better, I'd even say he got dragged into this Lovino mess like I did.

But I did know better. Though Kiku was more of a pushover than I would've liked, he wasn't when he came to shit like this. He definitely liked romantic happens, even if he wouldn't admit it. The look in his eyes every time he searched something on his phone (I have no idea what the hell he was searching for. Probably porn.) was creepy enough to want to run far away from him.

And Lovino had something to do with it. I had no idea how long they'd known each other or why they were friends, but even through differences, they both wanted the other to be happy with their life.

Aw sweet, I wonder when I'll get a friend like that.

During the time when Berwandra became the biggest hot topic in the school, Emil Steilsson had sent the principal a panicked letter about my mental state. I was growing steadily angrier, or so he said. My sanity levels was closer to 0% than 100%. As my friend, he was worried about the affect on me and the student body if I got any crazier.

Well thanks to him, I got interviewed by the press and earned a couple extra months in the hellhole I call home, much to my bitch aunt's displeasure. Needless to say, I haven't talked to him since.

I wondered what was up with him and his family lately. The last time we spoke, everything in the household was a mess and he was apparently heading back to his mother in Iceland soon. If he was still planning on that...I wouldn't know until someone else told me.

It might not do you bad to make some friendly acquaintances, My mother's voice.

I hadn't heard her voice in awhile, not since the falling out with Berwald. Maybe she got too depressed with my mental state to talk to me. I had calmed down since the end of freshman year. It was weird, my emotions stilled. There wasn't as much panic. She gave me to strength to speak.

I cleared my throat. "Well...I'm...You know I'm Finnish already..." I paused, wondering if I sounded dumb.

"Yes." Kiku nodded, swirling his straw in his cup, making the ice clink against the glass. I'm surprised he had the patience to wait for ten minutes while I mentally panicked about what to say. "You were born there, right?"

At least we were starting simple. "Yeah. I was born in Helsinki, as far as I know."

Kiky raised an eyebrow. "As far as you know?" He repeated.

"I just said that, idiot." I didn't mean to bitch at him, but I got asked about that part of my life way more than necessary. "Yes, I don't know. My mom found me in a bin outside of the city."

"You're adopted." Dammit, why couldn't I read his face?

"I JUST SAID THAT." Yep, we were definitely going to get thrown out, branded as rowdy teenagers that didn't know how to behave. I couldn't let them think that. I wouldn't wreak Kiku's perfect little reputation, even among nosy strangers. The counseling job helped me think more about that kind of thing, since I didn't feel like getting the school drama on the news paper.

Relief washed over me when Kiku didn't cringe or scream apologies. A guy can get sick of the power, you know? After my falling out with Berwald, I seemed to take a part of him with me; his scariness. When I first met him, I could barely sit next to him without squirming. His voice was so low, it brushed hell. He could probably crush someone if he merely touched them. But...I got used to it, goddammit...Why did I get used to it...

"I'm adopted too. My brother found me at an airport."

Wow, we actually had something in common. Who would've thought. "Really?"

He nodded and brushed back a strand of raven-black hair. "Yes, it's quite interesting. There's four of us: Leon, Yong Soo, Mei, and me. Yao somehow got the rights to us...He saved our lives. "

"That's nice." I replied, wincing at how cold that sounded.

"We were talking about you." Dammit, Kiku wasn't one to get off track. "You were telling me about when you got here. Care to continue?"

"Well, I came here a year ago. Got a couple jobs. Played in the orchestra for a bit. Made some friends. Made some enemies. Got tortured for a bit before my best friend pushed me into a pit of magma. That's basically the juicy bits."

Kiku wasn't at all satisfied with the juicy bits. "Who are these friends you're talking about?"

I shrugged. "Just a couple people. Lukas Bondevik, Mathias Køhler...Emil Stei...Bondevik. We actually had a pretty popular boy band going on for awhile. And Eduard. He was my math tutor. He's in my grade, I guess you could call us friends...And my old boss's children, the Kirklands."

Thankfully, Kiku didn't seem to notice the name blunder. If word got out about the Bondevik family situation...Oh God, Emil would claw his head off with his trademark fake white fingernails.

"You...You had Mr. Bondevik as a boss?" Kiku shuddered. "I'm so sorry. I had him once too. Was it the babysitting job?"

Well, at least I'm not the only one. "Yeah, it was."

A smirk spread across Kiku's face. "Two weeks before I was fired. Alistair didn't like me. He said I wasn't any fun. You?"

"I actually quit the same time I got fired." I admitted. "But it was probably...Maybe half a year?"

I could hear the slow clap coming from Kiku's brain. "Wow. I'm surprised you could stand it for that long."

"I learned a lot of patience." I replied dryly. "Probably a lot more than I'll ever need in life. Don't blame me if I'm waiting for the love of my life when I'm an old man."

"Oh yes, about that..."

Oh shit...Why can't you keep your mouth shut, Tino?

"How did you meet Berwald? I've never seen you in the sports field. He spends a lot of time with the basketball travel team."

"He took orchestra for awhile. I had to sit next to him." Which was hell, I thought, Especially when we weren't friends anymore.

"Very interesting..." I could almost see him mentally writing a fanfiction about us in his head and questioning who topped. (After the Antonio park meet-up, I looked up the yaoi fandom and read a couple "lemons". Nope, never looking that up again. How did Kiku stand it?) Hopefully I wasn't blushing too madly. "Now how did your friends respond to your crush?"

"Don't you dare call it that." I snapped.

"Relationship?"

"No!"

Kiku gave an exasperated fangirl-sigh. "Fine. Friend."

"That's better, I guess. But if you must know, Emil predicted it would end badly and Lukas hated him 'cause...Uh...He just hated him for no reason at the time."

"Well, You seem to have a lot of people to give you good advice."

I snorted. So that's what he was getting at. "Yeah, sure. A traitor, a slut, two weirdo geek-nerd, a five-year-old in a horrid family situation, and a bunch of drunk people. Yeah, I bet they'd be amazing support."

"You expect an awful lot from them, don't you. You've got to learn that no one's perfect, Tino."

Oh, now Kiku was going to go all sage on me. What, did he think he was god, an all-knowing being? Did he think he could read my messed up mind and judge me because of it?

Did he think I was STUPID?!

Well, I goddamn learned that lesson awhile ago, starting from when I was left in the snow as a baby. Everyone's a damn failure. We should all go to hell and die in a pool of our own regret. Maybe Kiku and his perfect little family thought themselves above that, but they'd be going there too along with me and all the murders. There was no denying that. Maybe he'd understand my life when he was burning up with me.

But as I got ready for bed that night, I realized Kiku was right.

That ending _ Oh gosh...I'm sorry if this is a disappointment.

A couple notes:

The Kirkland family includes Mr and Mrs Kirkland, Casey (Ireland, 20 something. Probably 24 or 25), Alistair (Scotland, of course, 22), Dylan/Kennedy (Long story. Wales, 17), Arthur (Do I really need to tell you that one? 16), and Peter (Sealand, 5). North Ireland will be addressed in another fic, so please don't bug me about it.

Yes, Mathias is a "weirdo-geek-nerd". I always felt like he'd be a huge nerd, so that's what I'm doing with him.

I'm rewriting Passed Away, so you might want to follow that for updates. If you haven't read that already, it's the Tino Berwald incident following Tino. I'm planning on Emil's letter being the first chapter. Lukas, Berwald, and of course Tino will give their views. Maybe the Kirkland brothers will make it in there too. A shit ton of info will be revealed. I just hope you stay tuned for that. This fic might go on Hiatus because of it. :(

Also, I'm stumped on In Spite, so if any of you are waiting for that, it may take awhile.

SpaMano angst/romance coming up next :3