Thanks to Lonely Islands, Yaoi-Is-Life-and-Love, MonalisaRomano17 and cAnd13ThEheTaLiaN for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 39

The moment Feliks saw the boy, he could tell that something bad was about to happen. The boy looked remarkably like Antonio, who Feliks knew was one of Lovino's tormentors. He looked at Lovino, who was standing there frozen. His eyes were bulging slightly.

And when Vlad made his way to that boy, the horror dawned on Feliks. He'd been with Lovino, so he knew about the things that Gupta and Vlad had told them about their friends. This was Miguel, the fifth member of their social circle.

This could not end well.

"Guys!" Vlad said, beckoning them closer. "Come on. This is Miguel."

Confirming his suspicions didn't make Feliks feel any better. It only made him feel more nervous for Lovino's sake. He turned his attention to his friend, and he carefully brushed against the other's arm. Lovino was startled out of his stupor, and he turned to Feliks.

"Like, just act natural," Feliks said. "I can see what you can, and I promise, I won't let things go bad for you again."

Lovino took a deep breath, and he allowed Feliks to guide him to the other two. By this time, Miguel and Vlad had lost their smiles, which were replaced by looks of concern.

"Is everything alright?" Miguel asked.

"Like, it's fine," Feliks quickly said. "Um, hey, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Feliks, right? Sure, go ahead."

"Um… You wouldn't happen to know anyone called Antonio, would you? It's just… You look a lot like this guy from our old school…"

At the mention of the name, Miguel's expression turned sour, and Feliks wondered if he said something wrong. The last thing they needed was for Feliks to ruin the situation and make it even more difficult than it already was.

"So, you're from that school," Miguel sighed. "Sim, I know Antonio. We're cousins. But I assure you, we're nothing alike. I, for one, have functioning braincells."

Lovino's breath hitched a little bit, and Feliks quickly glanced towards him. There was a brief flash of amusement, but the fear still dominated Lovino's body.

"Um, Miguel and I sit together," Vlad said. "But, the table behind the one behind us is free, so feel free to sit there."

Lovino nodded stiffly, and he made his way to the table that the Romanian had indicated. Feliks was about to follow, but Miguel reached out to stop him.

"Um, did I say or do something wrong?" he asked.

Feliks contemplated telling Miguel about the things his cousin had done to Lovino, before realising that it wasn't for him to say anything. So instead, he shook his head.

"Like, Lovino could be a bit hard to get close to," Feliks said. "Like, I think the others might have had an easier time because Lovino was a bit more relaxed when they met him. Just… Give him his time and space, okay?"

Miguel looked a bit worried, but he nodded his head. Feliks went to join Lovino, who breathed deeply and closed his eyes when the Pole went to sit next to him.

"What did you talk about?" Lovino asked.

"He asked me if he did something wrong," Feliks said. "I told him that you're just nervous around new people. I asked him to give you space."

Lovino released another deep breath.

"Grazie," he said.

"Like, do you think you need to step out for a bit?" Feliks asked.

Lovino shook his head.

"No, I don't think it's going to be necessary," he said. "He's not… too close. I can manage."

"Are you sure?" Feliks asked.

"I don't… want everyone to think I'm so weak."

Feliks nodded his head in understanding. He knew the feeling. The fear that people would learn of your weaknesses, and exploit them. As someone that had gone through a hard time himself, Feliks knew well the determination to not allow anyone to have that kind of power over you again.

And if Miguel was anything like his cousin… Then weakness couldn't be allowed.

…

Lovino did pretty well, all things considered. He breathed easy whenever he realised that he didn't have a class with Miguel, but the classes where he did have to be around the Spanish/Portuguese were difficult for him. He tried not to look at him. He tried not to touch him. And when he had to speak to him, he kept it brief and to the point.

The one class he knew he could relax was Consumer Studies. Yao was the only one of the group that had that class as well, so Lovino didn't have to worry about Miguel's presence.

Yao beckoned him closer, and Lovino sat down next to the Chinese boy.

"So, are you managing alright?" Yao asked. "No one giving you trouble?"

Lovino couldn't tell Yao that the only problem was one of his friends, especially since that friend hadn't even done anything to him (yet). So instead, Lovino shrugged.

"A lot of new people," he said. "I'm not really used to something like this."

"You had the same classmates for years, right?" Yao asked.

Lovino nodded his head, and Yao clicked his tongue.

"Ignorant idiots," Yao said. "Seriously, what was their problem with you? How could they just leave you alone?"

Lovino shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't think of anything to say. Because, now that he looked back on it, nothing that he did warranted the level of hatred he received. And it wasn't just the terrible trio that hated him.

"So, where exactly are we now?" Lovino asked, referring to the textbook.

"Page 34," Yao replied.

Lovino opened the book to the mentioned page, and he was pleased to see that he had already read it. So, it would seem that he wasn't terribly behind.

Of course, there was still the matter of needing to catch up the credits. That was something that he did not look forward to.

There was something else that he noticed about this class: he and Yao were the only boys.

Lovino didn't mind the absence of boys. Girls had a tendency to attack with their words. Very few of them resorted to violence, in his experience. This made him feel a little more at ease with the female population.

"Alright, settle down," the teacher said. "I know that there's a new boy here, but there's no reason for you to be so excited."

Lovino was startled, and he looked around. Indeed, most of the girls in the class were staring at him, and when they noticed him looking at them, they giggled and turned away.

"You'll get used to it," Yao said. "At least we don't get bullied for it."

"How?" Lovino whispered.

"Because the other guys in our year are aware of the fact that we spend a lot of time with pretty girls who know how to cook. If they need someone to butter up a girl they like, they'll usually ask me to do it for them, and they can't afford to lose the advantage."

Lovino shook his head, before looking up as the teacher handed out papers. He looked at the paper to see that it was a recipe for a chocolate brandy roll cake.

…That was a bit intimidating.

"Alright, so your homework is to rewrite the recipe according to the work order," the teacher instructed, before turning to Yao. "I trust that you'll be able to help your friend with the assignment?"

Yao nodded his head, and the teacher gave them five minutes to get started. Yao moved a bit closer to Lovino.

"You got the book, right?" Yao asked.

For the subject, they were instructed to buy an exercise book with at least 200 pages. Lovino removed it, and Yao immediately grabbed small sticky notes and started dividing the book.

"It's easier to have it all sorted into category," Yao explained. "Meat, pastry, sweets… And Ms Tazi can be pretty strict with things like this. In this case, it's a pastry, so you just need to put it with the pastries. Here, take a look at how I did it."

Yao showed Lovino the index of his book, and Lovino quickly copied it. Yao then instructed Lovino to paste the recipe received on the right page, while the left one was where he would do the homework assignment.

"Okay, so this is how it works," Yao instructed. "Draw a table with two columns. The left side should be smaller, since that's where you write your ingredients and measurements. Then, in the right column, you write the instructions that goes with the corresponding ingredients, and when that's done, draw a line and move on to the next instruction and ingredients."

Yao showed Lovino an example, and he nodded his head, starting to understand what the assignment was. Most of the five minutes had already been spent, so he quickly got to work so that he would at least know where to go on.

"Alright, let's move on to your textbooks," Ms Tazi said.

Lovino put the 'recipe book' in his bag. He would have to work on the homework after his appointment with Dr Williams that afternoon.

…

Gym class was a bit uncomfortable, but not to the point where he felt that he would need to be excused or anything. It was just the fact that he was being forced to sit out. There was no way he would be able to participate with his wrist and ankle.

Another thing that made the class uncomfortable was the fact that all five of his new 'friends' were there as well, along with Feliks, of course. And that meant that he was once again in close proximity to Miguel. It didn't help that they had decided to do their exercises (just a regular circuit of exercises) near Lovino's location.

"So, are you managing your first day?" Gupta asked.

"It's… alright," Lovino said. "Still a bit weird. Everyone's staring."

"Don't let it bother you too much," Heracles advised. "Everyone's curious about your injuries, but some of them are too polite to ask, and others at least have the gist of what happened."

"Not to mention, you're shiny and new," Miguel remarked. "Natural curiosity. Just give it a few weeks, and you'll see that they got used to you."

"And you'll get used to them," Vlad said.

Lovino didn't acknowledge Miguel's words, but he nodded towards Vlad. He looked up when the teacher approached, and the others made a show of doing the exercises.

"You know, you should actually be exercising," Mr Jones scolded, before he turned his attention to Lovino. "You doing okay?"

Lovino nodded his head. There was something that kept bothering him, but…

"Um, like, could I ask you something?" Feliks asked.

Mr Jones beamed.

"Sure!" he said. "Fire away, dude."

"Um… Do you know someone called… Matthew Williams?" Feliks hesitantly asked.

Mr Jones looked as though he understood something, and his smile fell fractionally, but Lovino could still see the concern in his eyes.

"Yeah," he said. "He's my brother. Our parents divorced when we were really young, so that's why we have different last names, in case you're wondering."

Lovino nodded his head. That would make sense. There was definitely a strong family resemblance.

"Oh," Feliks said. "Okay. I'm just…"

Feliks shrank away, and Lovino knew that he was embarrassed about confirming to the teacher that he was also seeing his brother as a therapist. Mr Jones shook his head, smile returning tenfold as he turned to the rest of the group.

"You're going to be taking good care of the two of them, right?" Mr Jones asked.

"Of course," Miguel said. "You can count on us."

Lovino shuddered when Miguel said it. At that moment, he saw Antonio, telling a teacher or another adult something contradictory to what they were doing to Lovino at the time. The most memorable being when they lied to Lovino's father after trying to drown him.

At that moment, Lovino considered going out for some air. He needed to get away from the living reminder of the torture he had gone through. But there was nothing now that could have triggered him, at least in the other people's minds. Lovino would have to wait for the class to be over.

Instead, he opted for closing his eyes, trying the breathing exercises that Dr Williams had shown him the previous week. And so, he didn't notice as the others gave him a concerned look.

…

"Ve, I hope Lovino's eating," Feliciano said.

It was lunchtime, and Feliciano and his friends were joined by Marcello and his friends. Feliciano's social circle had dwindled slightly, due to most of the others having something negative to say about Lovino, or not being comfortable with the angry version of Feliciano.

Kiku, of course, stuck close to Feliciano. The Japanese boy was Feliciano's oldest and closest friend, and was loyal to a fault. Other than Kiku, those that remained with Feliciano were Roderich and Dimitri. The Austrian and Bulgarian were closer with each other, but they still understood that Feliciano needed them. Especially after it turned out that most of the others only seemed to hang out with Feliciano because they liked his cheerfulness, and his popularity.

"Is it going to be bad if he doesn't?" Dimitri asked.

"Well, he did pass out that one time," Kiku said. "At the very least, lunch would stop that."

"It's not just that," Feliciano sighed. "He needs to spend time with other people. Gupta and his friends are nice, and looked really ready to help him."

"Well, there's always a chance that they would 'encourage' him to join them for lunch," Roderich pointed out. "I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Feliciano hoped that he was right.

…

Miguel had been pretty on edge the entire day. He had been excited to meet Lovino – someone that needed their help, who also had a love of books – but he was pretty sure that Lovino didn't like him. And Miguel just couldn't figure out what was going on. Interrogating Feliks yielded no results, and none of the others seemed to have an idea about what was going on.

And now, at lunch, Vlad actually had to drag Lovino to come sit with them. Feliks explained that Lovino was used to spending his lunchbreak in the library. Even now, Lovino didn't have any food in front of him.

"Are you sure that you're not going to eat?" Yao asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm used to it," Lovino said. "I actually want to… get to know the library."

"Well, you need to eat something," Miguel said, taking his bread roll and placing it in front of Lovino.

Miguel's eyes widened when he saw Lovino flinch back, but it didn't seem as though anyone else noticed it. Lovino shook his head, placing the bread near Miguel again, but the Portuguese could have sworn that while doing so, Lovino had tried very hard not to make any contact.

"No thanks," Lovino said. "I don't want it."

There was something harsh in Lovino's tone, and Miguel just couldn't figure out what could have caused it. He couldn't remember doing anything to insult or upset Lovino, so what was going on?

"I agree with Miguel," Gupta said. "You need to eat something."

Lovino shook his head, and Miguel filled his cup of water, before placing it in front of Lovino.

"Drink some water, at least," Miguel said. "You look really pale, amigo."

Lovino's eyes widened, and Miguel noticed his breathing hitch. Lovino's eyes turned distant, and after a few seconds, he shook his head, before he stood up.

"I-I need to go t-to the b-bathroom," Lovino stuttered, before he started to walk away.

If not for his injured ankle, he might have opted to run instead.

Feliks stood, most likely planning to go after Lovino, but Miguel stopped him.

"I can go," he said.

"But…" Feliks started.

"I need to ask him something anyway."

Miguel didn't wait any longer, before he followed after the person that he was trying to make friends with. He saw Lovino entering the bathroom, and he gave the other teen a few seconds, before he entered as well.

Lovino was bowed over the sinks, his breathing harsh. Miguel worried that he might have been hyperventilating. He approached the Italian, reaching a hand to place it on his shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" Lovino snapped, jerking away.

Miguel tried to ignore the hurt as Lovino backed away, glaring slightly at him.

"Did I do something wrong?" Miguel asked. "If I did, I'm sorry. But could you at least tell me what it is I did?"

Lovino shook his head.

"W-what makes y-you think… Y-you did something…?" Lovino gasped.

"You've been avoiding me the whole day," Miguel said. "You won't even look at me. Like now."

It was true. Loivino had his eyes averted, and it looked as though he was desperately searching for a way to not look at Miguel.

"I-I…" Lovino stammered. "It's… It's nothing…"

"No," Miguel said firmly. "I can see that it's not 'nothing'. Something's bothering you, and I can't help but think that it has something to do with me. So, could you at least tell me what's upsetting you? I just want to help you."

Lovino hugged himself. He seemed to be debating how to respond.

"You… look a lot like Antonio," Lovino said.

Miguel frowned in confusion.

"What does my cousin have to do with…?" Miguel started, but then stopped. Lovino and Antonio were in the same school together. And Antonio's been having a tough time recently. Around the same time… "Antonio… He's one of the kids that hurt you, isn't he?"

Lovino closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face. That was all the answer Miguel needed.

Miguel closed the distance between them, wrapping Lovino in a hug. He could feel the Italian stiffening in his hold, and Miguel was aware of how small Lovino actually was.

"I am not my cousin," Miguel said earnestly. "I promise, I would never hurt you. And if I break that promise… I give you permission to punch me in the nose."

Lovino sobbed, and he clung to Miguel. The Portuguese couldn't help but wonder what had been going on in Antonio's mind, but whatever it was, nothing could justify the fear that Lovino seemed to have for him. And that was when Miguel realised that throughout the day, Lovino was afraid of him.

It wasn't a nice feeling.

Miguel and Lovino's scene didn't go exactly how I wanted it to… Specifically, the how they got there. But yeah, regarding Miguel, Lovino's mind had been switched to 'fight' the whole time, and when Miguel said 'amigo', it triggered something in Lovino's mind, and the 'fight' turned to 'flight'.

A bit more about CS: we had these books which we used as 'recipe books'. We had a practical about once a week, and that usually involved doing something with the recipes. We needed to make them for practice, and take a picture, which we had to paste with the recipe. On the opposite page, we had some sort of assignment. I can only remember two of them: Work process and calculation of cost. The work process is what was described above: rewrite the recipe, but arrange it in such a way that the instructions are with the relevant ingredients. I got this notebook which I use for recipes I find from the internet, and this is how I write them down. Calculation of cost is pretty much what you'd think. You work out the price for the amount of each ingredient that you would use (for example, if a 250g bag of flour costs R20, but you only used 50g, then the cost of flour would be R4), and then see what the actual total is, and that way, you can work out a profit. And the chocolate brandy roll cake is one of the recipes we had to make. It was one of two recipes where underage teenagers were allowed to work with alcohol (the other was biltong soup – even if you can't find the biltong, I would recommend the soup).

You can actually find old exam papers online, as well as the practical tasks, which, if you're curious, could give you a better idea about this subject. The practical tasks are the rubric, and they actually have recipes at the back. Among the recipes of the 2019 PAT I found a recipe for milk tart, which is a popular South African dessert, if you're curious to try it.