The timing of that afternoon was all very unfortunate, particularly when the prom was on Friday in three weeks. Apparently the student council was making it earlier that year, and he had no doubt the girls complaining about the cold weather was the cause. It was winter prom, for fucks sake, it was meant to be cold, but apparently people just didn't understand that.

But the fact that it was so soon meant that there wasn't much time for the Italian to ask his newfound crush out. Lovino wasn't the type to ask people out to things, and usually he had time to gain confidence to do that sort of thing, like when he asked that girl Sophia to last year's winter prom. She was nice enough, and his brother had insisted he needed a date last year, otherwise he would have gone alone. He actually wouldn't have gone at all if not for his brother... and both Gilbert and Matthew pestering him.

He would have continued to ponder this, when of course the very man he was thinking about tapped his shoulder. "Are you okay, Lovi? You seemed to look a bit down," Antonio explained, a gentle smile on his face. Lovino blushed and nodded in response, looking up at the Spaniard for a moment before returning his gaze back down.

"I'm fine, Antonio, I promise. I, uh, I gotta go, for real this time. I've got something important that I forgot about and it has to be done now. So uh, see you."

With that Lovino got up and walked off, despite the confused looks from Gilbert, Matthew and Francis. The new couple pulled away and sat down again, seeing no point in chasing him when he needed time to think things through. They could tell, Gilbert and Matthew could always tell when something was up.

Antonio had a confused look of his own, and was worried that Lovino might have been sick since he had looked all spacey and red, but didn't want the Italian to hate him when Lovino was just starting to tolerate him.

Of course, Francis being Francis, reverted back to the old topic of Antonio's crush, interrupting Antonio's thoughts of Lovino. "You said you had a crush on Laura, the Belgium girl at our table group in English, oui?"

This fact confused Gilbert very much, because he was almost certain Antonio had a crush on Lovino.

—

Lovino made his way out of the cafeteria, and ended up walking outside to the oak tree he usually sat at. There was someone else there that day, a British male who he knew was friends with Matthew. He wasn't bothered to argue or anything, like he usually would have done if someone was sitting in his spot, and simply sat down beside him silently. He wanted to think about all the things that he'd just realised, since it was a lot to take in and he was having trouble processing it. Sure, he was bisexual and had known for a while, but that wasn't the problem. That silence continued for a few minutes, before the blond spoke up, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Hello, Lovino. Is everything alright?" The voice was gentle and surprisingly kind from the Brit who would usually want to be left alone as well. Arthur hadn't seen him look so quiet or so deep in thought for a long time and wanted to see if there was anything he could help with. While he wasn't close friends with Lovino, he was a good listener and usually had decent advice to give, both of which the Italian seemed to need at that point.

Lovino looked almost as if he wasn't going to speak, but then sighed and shook his head. "Have you ever realised something big, something that you don't know what to do about, and be in the worse place possible to realise it?"

"Well, yes, I realised I was gay in the middle of sixth grade French class."

"That's, um, wow. I was not expecting that, but that's cool I guess. Well, I just realised something important in the middle of the cafeteria while Gilbert and Matthew kissed—they're a thing now by the way—and now I don't know what to do. I, I kinda just need someone else to talk to. My friends are great, but I don't want them to try and do something about the situation before I'm ready."

Arthur raised a bushy eyebrow at the mention of Gilbert and Matthew but stayed mostly silent until Lovino finished speaking. "I'm not going to make you tell me either way, but if this is love advice you need I'm not the best person to ask. If this is about a crush on someone, I will tell you this much. You're never going to get anywhere by doing nothing. Talk to them, show them who you really are, and once you're ready you ask them out, just don't wait too long or else someone else might snatch them up. If they reject you, then they're a waste of your time. If they return your feelings, then try to go on a date with them and build your relationship."

"I guess you're right, but I don't know what his sexuality is. I know he's not homophobic, but I highly doubt he's attracted to guys." Lovino let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head.

"You never know unless you ask, and like I said before, if he doesn't like you he's not worth your time. Don't waste your life pining over someone, it only makes it harder."

"You sound as if you know from experience?"

"Like I said, sixth grade French class."

"Oh."

The bell rung, interrupting the next thing Lovino was going to say. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Hey, uh, Arthur? You're not so bad." That's all he said before he left, unwilling to admit that he'd actually been thankful for his conversation with the Brit.

Arthur left soon after, a small, knowing smile on his lips. "I do hope things go well with Antonio," he whispered, knowing nobody would hear him since he was still at the tree. He'd seen the way that Lovino looked, and it was his best guess that the Spaniard was the one he liked.

—

His next class was chemistry, and though it was okay, he really didn't want to go there at that moment. Two out of three members of the BTT were there, and he really wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone.

"Yo, Vino, where'd you run off to?" Gilbert asked, sitting down on one side of Lovino as Francis took the other. The teacher, very 'strategically' had sat Lovino between the two, which had only made life harder for the Italian on days where he did not want to be social.

"It doesn't matter, Gilbert. I just didn't want to be around you and all your snogging. You and Mattie are awesome and all, but I'm not particularly interested in seeing you too kiss." He rolled his eyes, opening his book and starting the work that had been written on the board since they had a sub.

"That's definitely why you left," the 'Prussian' retorted, sighing and gently taking the pen from Lovino's hands. "You've been acting weird for a while now, V, are you sure you're okay? Matthew and I are getting worried, you're not telling us what's going on and we want to help."

"I'm not telling you because it doesn't matter and you'd think it was stupid. And you," he said as he turned to Francis, "would have a field day if you learnt what was going on."

"Vino, we wouldn't be mean, even Francis wouldn't be like that since it's obviously important, you know you can trust us with everything," Gilbert pleaded softly, giving him a hopeful smile. "If it's about Antonio I can talk and ask him to stop whatever he's doing."

"The bastard hasn't done anything. It's just me, I'm lower case b and upper case B. Just, leave me alone for today, please." The vulnerability in his voice surprised both of the men beside him. Francis nodded and turned to his work, but Gilbert was more reluctant,

"Please, just tell us if there is something wrong, not now but later. Whatever I've done to break your trust, I'm sorry," Gilbert whispered, slowly giving him back his pen and turning to do his own work. That was what made the guilt start to sink in for Lovino, and he knew that he had messed up again. Gilbert was only trying to support him, yet he couldn't keep his emotions in check to be able to allow him to help. He hadn't thought that anyone could help him when he couldn't clearly label the problem, and now he'd hurt people.

But true to his word, both Gilbert and Francis had left him alone for the rest of the day, and apparently they told Matthew too because the Canadian made no attempt to comfort him when they met up for German class at the end of the day. The silence was horrible, it engulfed everything he seemed to think about in a shroud of utter loneliness. "I'm lower case bad and there's no one here to help because I stuffed up," he whispered as he walked out of the school building, walking slowly along the path to make the trek home.

It was a cooler day so wearing the oversized sweater to hide his wings wasn't so bad, but he still felt horrible. He just wanted to go home, to hide away and pretend his troubles didn't exist. 'But what good would that do?' the quiet voice of reason in his head asked. "Absolutely nothing," he murmured to himself, but still resigned himself to doing that anyway. Well, that was what he would have done if a certain Spaniard hadn't come over to 'cheer him up, because that's what good friends do'.

"Just leave me the fuck alone," he growled at Antonio, continuing on his walk towards his house.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, Lovi, my friend is upset and I gotta make him happy again. Usually you're more of a playful angry, but today you're sad angry and I don't know what happened to make you upset." Antonio's voice was genuine and kind, and Lovino wished that his kindness wasn't one of the reasons that he liked Antonio. It would be a whole bunch easier if this damn crush wasn't getting in the way and messing with his emotions. Lovino didn't reply straight away to what the other said, not wanting to mess up again. As much as he hated (though secretly loved) to admit it, Antonio was miraculously still his friend, and he didn't want to ruin that because of his bad attitude.

The Spaniard spoke once again, his beautiful, emerald green wings folded down as not to intimidate the other. "You don't have to tell me what it is, just let me get you some ice cream or something. Ice cream makes people happy, right?"

Lovino pondered the decision for a moment, and eventually sighed, slowly nodding and turning before gesturing for Antonio to follow. He didn't know why he agreed to it, and he probably shouldn't have, but he couldn't bring himself to deny Antonio. He was just so sweet and thoughtful, and after messing up with Matthew and Gilbert he didn't want it mess up again.

"We aren't getting ice cream though, we're getting gelato, and you're paying," Lovino told him, receiving a nod in reply.

"So, what do you think about the project for English? It's pretty lucky to be in the same group as each other, huh?" Antonio asked, tilting his head.

"Yeah, I guess the group is okay. But I don't want to talk about the damn project right now, if you didn't notice I'm kind of not in the mood."

"Right, sorry Lovi."

—

(A/N)

Just to let you guys know since it might help, for the BAD system each letter refers to a word that starts with that letter. If the letters were 's', 'o' and 'r' for example, the lower cases could be shameful, outcasted and regretful. The capitals could be Satanic, Outraged and Revengeful.