Full Prompt: Song-Man to Man by Gary Allen

If there was one thing Gilbert shouldn't talk about with Antonio, it was Lovino. It was common sense really, Gilbert had a secret relationship with Lovino, he probably shouldn't talk about him with Lovino's ex. The second the Italian's name came up, there were alarm bells ringing in Gilbert's head. This was bad, and Gilbert knew it. Unfortunately, they were both too drunk to care. Maybe if Francis was there, he could've stopped things from going so far. He'd always been the best with people, after all, but he'd ditched them last minute in favour of annoying Arthur, so they were alone at Antonio's house for what was supposed to be a Bad Touch Trio night. Gilbert had thought it would be fine, just a night in for him and Antonio, but he'd thought wrong. He forgot, the universe hated him.

"I wish he wasn't so mad at me," Antonio said glumly, his chin resting in his palm.

"Who?" Gilbert asked, alcohol making him genuinely forget who Antonio was talking about. Of course there was only one person it could be.

"Lovi," Antonio said, sighing.

That was the moment Gilbert knew he should end the conversation. If he'd just been able to think of a way to do that without coming off as suspicious, everything would have been fine. But he couldn't, so gilbert had no choice but to indulge Antonio. Plus, Gilbert kind of wanted to hear what he had to say.

"How do you know he's still mad?" Gilbert asked, sipping his beer. Now that he was trying to listen to what Antonio was saying, he was actually watching how much he drank.

"I spoke to him, at…Kiku's? Yeah, Kiku's party," Antonio said, smiling at his ability to remember the host of the latest get together.

"And?" Gilbert asked, leaning back on the couch.

"He barely said anything to me, it was like he didn't even know me." Antonio was brooding again, Gilbert had seen him doing this a lot in the past months. He was finally regretting his actions after breaking up with Lovino. Gilbert knew, he'd seen nations act like this one too many times in the past. A few times, he'd been the nation doing the regretting.

"Have you tried talking to him about it?" Gilbert said, gaze flickering around the room. There'd used to be pictures, photos of Antonio and Lovino. He hadn't noticed their disappearance until now.

"What's there to talk about?" Antonio asked. That was the point when Gilbert first got the urge to punch him.

"Why did you two break up?" Gilbert asked, fighting to keep his cool.

"How should I know?" Antonio whined, burying his head in his hands.

"Then there's one thing you two could talk about," Gilbert said, shrugging.

Antonio threw himself back into the couch, staring up at the ceiling. For someone that acted so happy most of the time, he could be really depressing when he got in a mood. Gilbert was really wishing Francis was there, or that they'd just called the whole thing of when he'd pulled out.

"We were so good together!" Antonio said, running a hand through his hair.

"Were you really?" Gilbert asked, glancing over to his friend.

"Lovi was happy with me," Antonio said defensively, pushing himself up to stare at Gilbert.

"Would you have known if he wasn't?" Gilbert asked. "Would he have told you if he was upset?"

"But he was never upset!"

"Bullshit, Toni. You think in all the time you were together, he never got upset, he never needed someone?"

Antonio went quiet, looking down. Usually, winning an argument with him was a reason for Gilbert to smirk, but not now.

"If Lovino was upset, he wouldn't tell you, would he? It's not like him," Gilbert said.

"How would you know?" Antonio asked, but he looked defeated. "When he was younger, he came running whenever anything was wrong."

"He wasn't who you thought he was, Toni. Maybe he used to be but…" Gilbert trailed off, shrugging. "You remember him how he used to be, but people change."

Antonio looked at him strangely, and Gilbert was suddenly struck with the realisation that he'd probably said too much.

"Why do you think you know so much about him?" Antonio asked. "You barely know Lovi."

Gilbert clenched his fists, reminding himself how bad it would seem if he punched his friend. That would definitely count as self-incrimination. Still, how did Antonio think that he had the right to call him 'Lovi'? That right had disappeared when Lovino walked out on him. Antonio needed to stop holding onto things that were over.

"We've been spending time together," Gilbert shrugged, trying to keep his tone even.

"So you think you know him now?" Antonio asked, suddenly serious. "You'll never know Lovino like I did."

Gilbert knew better than to be intimidated by him, the Spaniard was too drunk to be any good in a fight. Besides, the worst Antonio could do even sober was beat the crap out of him.

"You didn't know him at all," Gilbert said, voice rising. "He was miserable with you, and you were so obsessed with the nation he used to be that you couldn't even see it."

Antonio looked like he'd just been slapped. It was almost as satisfying as if Gilbert had actually hit him. Half of him almost regretted that he felt happy about hurting the man that was supposed to be his friend.

"You forced him to be something that he wasn't, all for the sake of your own happiness," Gilbert continued.

"So?" Antonio demanded, drawing him up to his full height. "If he didn't like it, he would've said so!"

"No he wouldn't!" Gilbert yelled, and suddenly Antonio was silent. "You and I both know Lovino has the lowest self-esteem you could imagine. He thought you were the only person who could ever love him, and he was willing to be unhappy instead of losing the only person outside of his family who'd ever shown any interest in him."

Antonio looked ready to kill, but Gilbert knew he could take him if it really did come to a fistfight. He'd come this far, he wasn't about to give up now.

"He's happier now," Gilbert said firmly. "If you keep at this, that's not going to last long."

Antonio sat back, anger dissipating. The tension in the room seemed to lessen, until it wasn't tangible in the air. Gilbert withheld a sigh of relief, knowing he was already dangerously close to giving himself and Lovino away.

"Do you really think Lovino was miserable?" Antonio asked, his voice small.

"I have no idea how Lovino was before he met you," Gilbert said honestly. "I just know that if he thought you loved him, he would've done a lot to keep himself from losing that."

There was silence for a while, until Antonio broke it. Gilbert was surprised by how quiet his words were, how uncertain.

"I don't know if I'm ready to see him happy without me," Antonio said, gaze cast down.

Gilbert almost felt bad for the secret he was keeping. When he and Lovino had first gotten together, Antonio had been the one sleeping around and hurting Lovino. Now he was the one being hurt, and when he found out about Gilbert and Lovino, it was only going to get worse. This was going to blow up in their faces, one day very soon, and Gilbert knew they weren't ready for that.

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my faithful reader sparklybutterfly42, your reviews have been awesome and I really look forward to reading them. Thanks to everyone else who's been reading, reviewing, favouriting and following as well, you're all awesome and this story wouldn't be anything without you!