Thanks to O, , WickedInk, LemonHerz, Senii, Yaoi-Is-Life-and-Love and an anon for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Chapter 46

Miguel waited patiently for Yao and Lovino to finish. Mr Jones was standing beside him, observing the two. Miguel noticed every time Lovino's foot seemed to bother him. Yao seemed to notice as well, for he would always work to adjust everything for Lovino's sake.

"Why aren't you joining them?" Mr Jones suddenly asked.

"I can't," Miguel replied. "That would mean taking off this scarf."

"Is it really so bad if it comes off?"

"Sim…"

"…You know, if something's bothering you, you can always discuss things with a teacher, right?"

Miguel was silent for a moment. Perhaps it would be good to get an adult's opinion.

"I found out that my cousin is one of the people responsible for bullying Lovino," Miguel admitted. "I went to confront him about it, and… well, at least now I know that Lovino wasn't lying. Not that I believed it for even a second."

"He attacked you?" Mr Jones asked.

Miguel nodded.

"I don't want Lovino to see these," he said. "I'm afraid I might have overstepped some boundary. I'm also scared that he might blame himself for this. I'm worried that he might think that he's the reason I got hurt. And I don't want him to feel like that."

Mr Jones gave him a soft smile, before ruffling his hair.

"You're a good kid, Miguel," he said. "Still, you probably shouldn't be so reckless. Did your cousin at least get punished?"

Miguel nodded.

"He's grounded," he said.

"Sounds pretty lenient after everything he's put Lovino through," Mr Jones commented.

"Wait until my grandmother hears about this."

"She one of those typical Spanish grandmas?"

Miguel nodded.

"Not to mention, the entire family already voiced their disgust over what's been done to Lovino," Miguel said. "If they find out that Antonio's one of the people responsible… Let's just say that 'black sheep' doesn't even begin to cover it."

Mr Jones chuckled, before he looked over towards Yao and Lovino. Miguel noticed that Lovino was leaning a bit too heavily on his right leg, and he looked as though every movement was painful. Yao immediately stopped, starting to fuss over Lovino. Mr Jones walked closer, Miguel following at a distance.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today," Mr Jones said. "Lovino, are you okay? Do you need some ice or something?"

"I'm fine," Lovino replied. "Just a bit sore, that's all."

"Still, we should probably head to the nurse's office to see if she can give you something, okay?"

Lovino still looked a bit resistant, but after seeing the worried looks of the other three, he grudgingly nodded his head, allowing Mr Jones to lead him away.

"I'm sorry if I pushed you too hard," Yao said.

"It's… not your fault," Lovino said.

Miguel placed his hand on Yao's shoulder, prompting the other to turn to him.

"He's used to hiding his pain," Miguel said. "He must have unconsciously done it again. Come on. We can't do anything else now. We can check in on him later, though."

Yao sighed, nodding his head. Grabbing their things, they started to leave before they both came to a realisation.

"Do you have his cell phone number?" Yao asked.

"No," Miguel said. "Do you?"

They both stared at each other for a long time before they started to make their way to the nurse's office.

…

"Well, your arm is a bit swollen, though I can't do much with this thing on," the nurse said. "But I can help you with the ankle."

Lovino nodded as the nurse set to work. He was surprised to hear that the school nurse was the wife of his Literature teacher. Alice Kirkland seemed to be a nice enough woman, though she had a definite no-nonsense air about her.

"You should have known that this was a bad idea," she reprimanded, turning to Alfred, who raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, but he'll need marks for my class," he said.

"Six weeks," she snapped. "That's generally how long you have to wait before you attempt physical exercise after a sprain or break. And he has both of them. I'm going to assume it hasn't been six weeks yet?"

"N-no," Lovino stammered. "Um, it's been two."

Alice clicked her tongue, before throwing Alfred a glare. For his part, he looked suitably ashamed.

"You can wait for four weeks before you can start with exercises," she said. "Until then, you'll need to take it very slowly. We don't need this to get even worse. In fact, I'll even write you a note to exempt you from Gym class until then. You may use that time for study hall."

Lovino nodded his head. The three of them looked up when someone else entered the nurse's office. Miguel and Yao stood there, looking sheepish.

"You know, we wanted to check in on you later, but then we realised that neither of us has your number," Miguel said. "So, do you mind…?"

"No!" Lovino snapped, vehemently shaking his head. "I'm not giving my number to anyone."

"Huh?" Yao and Miguel questioned.

"Why?" Alfred asked.

"Because…" Lovino started, remembering all of the words told to him. Words that had been written on notes and passed on to him. And the one time Feliciano had made the mistake of giving his number to someone else. It wasn't even one of those three, but… It was a definite reminder that Lovino wasn't well-liked. "I don't… want to… to…"

"Oh!" Miguel exclaimed, eyes widening. "You're afraid of cyber bullying, aren't you?"

Lovino nodded his head. Miguel strode forward and reached out to Lovino. The Italian flinched, but the Portuguese softly stroked his left arm.

"I understand," he said. "Could we at least have your house number? You know, just to check on you if necessary?"

"By the way, are you okay?" Yao asked. "I'm sorry if I pushed you too far. But you should have told me."

Lovino shrugged.

"I didn't want to interrupt you," he said. "And I… didn't want you to think I was being lazy or not trying."

"Where would you get an idea like that?" Miguel demanded. "Lovino, if something's hurting you, you need to tell us, okay? We won't be able to know if something's wrong with you if you don't tell us."

"Agreed," Alice said. "You need to be careful, alright? And no one's going to blame you if you tell them that something is painful for you."

Lovino was a bit shocked to hear all of this. Not even his father had been this sympathetic when he originally got out of the hospital after the accident. When the casts came off, he would often complain if Lovino couldn't keep up when going somewhere. He would complain about Lovino's clumsiness, which, while mostly brought on by that condition it turned out he had, was also because of the broken arm still needing to recover.

Lovino didn't know why, but his eyes started to sting, and before he could respond, the tears started to fall. He wasn't too surprised that Miguel pulled him into a hug, and he clung to the Portuguese.

"Let me guess," Miguel gently said. "They convinced you that you were being a nuisance, right?"

Lovino nodded his head, and his breath hitched when he felt Miguel stroking his back. He was starting to understand what Gupta and the others meant when they said that Miguel was the one that they went to for emotional problems.

"…It's getting late," Alfred suddenly said. "Lovino, why don't I drive you back?"

"H-huh?" Lovino asked. "You… You don't have to do that. It's a long drive."

"I've made dinner plans with my brother anyway. So what if I get there a bit early? And I don't think you want to get on the bus like that, right?"

Lovino swallowed thickly, before releasing a shaky breath.

"G-grazie," he whispered.

"Do you have painkillers?" Alice asked.

"I-in my backpack."

"I think you need to drink some of it right away. Is it anti-inflammatory?"

Lovino nodded his head.

"Alright," Alice said. "I'll get you some water, okay?"

Yao handed him his backpack, and Lovino rifled around for the packet he kept with him in case of emergencies. His father had ensured that it would be a small pack that wouldn't be enough to make another attempt.

He gratefully accepted the water and drank two of the pills. Yao gave him his phone, asking for the home number, which Lovino typed in. If he felt that things were growing bitter between them, then he could always tell his brothers and father to not give him the phone if one of them called. Once that was done, Yao beamed in joy.

"I'll call later tonight to hear if you're okay," Yao said. "Um, it's a bit awkward, but… I think we need to go too."

"I can drop you two off too," Alfred offered.

"You don't have to do that," Miguel quickly interjected. "We don't want to inconvenience you."

Alfred sighed.

"You know, I can see why you guys get along so well," he said. "I'm offering. So accept it."

Miguel and Yao shared a glance, and Lovino couldn't help but smirk.

…

Vlad led Feliks into his home, smiling happily. Feliks took a moment to admire the building. It was small, and there was a small lack of… something, but Feliks didn't know what it was.

"I know it's not very impressive," Vlad said. "But it's home."

"Like, it's cute," Feliks quickly said.

Feliks's ears perked when he heard running footsteps, and soon enough…

It… was a miniature version of Vlad.

"You're back!" the mini-Vlad said, before his eyes drifted to Feliks. His head cocked to the side. "Who's this?"

"This is Feliks," Vlad explained. "He's new at the school, and we've got a project together." He turned to Feliks. "This is my little brother, Alexandru. Feel free to just call him Alex."

Feliks nodded, before he smiled at the younger boy.

"Like, nice to meet you," he said.

"You talk funny," Alexandru said, giggling. "Vlad, can you make lunch?"

Vlad nodded his head, before he made his way to the kitchen. Feliks, not knowing what else to do, followed after him.

"Like, where are your parents?" Feliks asked.

"They won't be back until later," Vlad explained. "Much later, actually. Are you sure you'll be able to catch a bus?"

"Like, if I need to, I can totally call my mom. So… Alex was waiting for you to come to fix lunch?"

Vlad nodded his head.

"He's not very confident in the kitchen yet," Vlad explained. "And my mom doesn't trust him in here yet. Not without supervision. Not even to make a sandwich."

Feliks winced, and he noticed that Vlad was indeed making sandwiches. He picked up the jar of peanut butter before turning to Feliks.

"Want some?" he asked.

"Like, I'm allergic to peanuts," Feliks explained. "Like, you can just put some cheese on mine."

Vlad nodded his head, proceeding to make the sandwiches. He handed Feliks's to him, clearly trying to avoid accidentally handing Feliks a sandwich that would be tantamount to poison. Feliks gratefully accepted the sandwich before Vlad went off to find Alexandru, both his and his brother's sandwiches in his hands. Feliks followed, balancing the plate with one hand while biting into the sandwich with the other. He wondered what kind of cheese this was.

After giving Alexandru's plate to him, Vlad beckoned him to his own bedroom. Feliks admired it for a moment, seeing the black paper bats on the closet door.

"Alright," Vlad said. "We need to make a poster about bullying. Any suggestions?"

"Like, what about the things it can do to a person?" Feliks suggested. "Like, self-harm, for example? And how it could totally ruin a person's life?"

"We could also add a bit about substance abuse and suicide. We could also mention that bullying might also potentially lead to a school shooting. And what about different types of bullying?"

"Like, I can give you a screenshot of my Facebook account," Feliks said. "What the people in my old school – um, like, the school before I met Lovino – used to send me. I… I don't really log in anymore."

Vlad shot him a sympathetic look, before he shook his head.

"I don't think we should go so far," he said. "Um… We can add verbal bullying and cyber bullying. Did they hurt you physically?"

"Like, it's nothing compared to what they did to Lovino," Feliks scoffed. "The worst they did was shove me around, actually. What about you?"

Vlad shrugged.

"Well, there was this one time when someone tried to 'stake' me," he said. "He watched a vampire movie and learned from that that it's the best way to get rid of vampires. It was a thick stick, which was thankfully blunt. He could have done serious damage. But he jabbed it a few times while pinning me down. The teacher thankfully pulled him off me, but I had a huge bruise for a few weeks."

Feliks cringed when he heard that.

"Like, that's horrible," he said. "Does it still happen?"

Vlad shook his head.

"Not since I've met Miguel and Yao," he said. "The fact that I wasn't alone anymore made things easier."

Feliks smiled, before his eyes widened.

"Like, we should also add a part about why people get bullied," he said.

Vlad smiled and nodded.

"That might help," he said. "Expand on the whole 'people who are different tend to get bullied'. See if we can get in the psychology of it all."

With a more concrete idea, the two started to make their list.

…

Yao and Miguel had asked Mr Jones to drop them off at Miguel's house, since Miguel didn't have any siblings that tended to get annoying whenever he had guests.

As they went up to Miguel's room, Yao couldn't help but think about Lovino. He should have noticed that his movements weren't coming easily, even in his case. He should have paid attention to Lovino's facial expressions instead of his body movements. And he should have stopped them sooner.

"You're feeling guilty about Lovino, aren't you?" Miguel asked.

Yao snapped out of his thoughts, before he smiled to his friend.

"You know me too well," he said. "Yes. I should have realised that something was wrong sooner."

"Like I said, he's used to hiding his pain," Miguel said, face hardening. "You saw him. He… They convinced him that he should keep all of that to himself. That he's… he's being a nuisance."

"Well, technically, he didn't say that. But… Yeah, I got that hint too."

The two walked into Miguel's room. Miguel went to get the supplies he'd bought the previous day. Everything they needed for their poster. Except pictures. For that, they could always use Miguel's laptop.

"I think we should mention that too," Yao commented. "You know, how bullying can cause people to stop speaking up if something is wrong with them. That they're… afraid to ask for help, even if it has nothing to do with what the bullies do."

"I agree," Miguel said. "I just wish the people at his old school could realise the danger he was in. That they put him in."

"Seriously, how could anyone be so blind? Lovino's a nice guy, and he's been through a lot. I think he might have even been through more than the rest of us combined."

"Well, no one tried to kill any of us. Come on. Let's get this over with."

…

"Here," Lovino said.

Alfred nodded his head, stopping the car in the driveway. Lovino grabbed his bag, being very careful about the injured limbs.

"You need help?" Alfred asked.

"I'll be fine," Lovino said. "Thank you. Send Dr Matthew my regards."

Alfred smiled, and Lovino climbed out of the car. He limped up to the front door, which opened to receive him. His father frowned in concern, before his gaze drifted behind Lovino. Lovino turned back to see that Alfred was following after him.

"Dad, this is Mr Jones," Lovino explained. "My Gym teacher."

"Hey," Alfred greeted when he reached them. "Sorry about this. I just needed to get him a grade for my class, so I started with some low-impact exercises that might have been too early. But he's been exempted from my class for the next four weeks, so I can promise you that this isn't going to happen again."

Romulus just looked between the two and sighed.

"Thank you for bringing him," Romulus said. "Would you like some coffee? I know it was a long trip."

Alfred checked his watch, before nodding his head.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm meeting up with my brother later, but I could kill some time. And it's no problem. I'm the one to blame for Lovino being hurt this time."

Lovino looked between the two adults and sighed.

"I'm going to rest a bit," he said. "I'm a bit woozy from the pills."

"Just don't… Romulus started.

"Fall asleep. I know."

Lovino went up to his bedroom – slowly. When he stepped inside, he saw that Chiara was lying in her basket, eyes open. Her rear end vibrated as her tail wagged, happy to see him. She pulled herself forward before finally realising that she couldn't reach him like this and launched herself out of her basket, going over to greet him. He bent down and played with her a bit with his left hand, before scooping her up and depositing her on his bed.

He removed his shoes, as well as the bandage around his left ankle. He lay down, and was surprised when Chiara went over towards his injured ankle and started licking the foot. He stared at the puppy, wondering if she realised that it was hurting him at that moment, and if she was trying to soothe the pain. He smiled as he reached out for his book.

"Where have you been when I was growing up?" he asked.

In Lovino's narration, a lot of the times it switches between calling a teacher (or Matthew) by their names and titles. This is to show that Lovino is forming a connection with the teachers. In his old school, the only teacher that got this treatment was Vash, who was the only one, asides from the librarian, to try to help Lovino.