Hey guys! So we have a new title, new description and... A TUMBLR TAG! It's "Fic:SYGF" if you're of the tumblring persuasion :D
Okay, so actually important stuff: This chapter took forever because of my 2 ap classes and distractions/plot bunnies and because I had my own mini sexuality crisis. Fun. But it's here because I sat down and forced myself to stop procrastinating at 10 last night. I finished this chapter at 1am, posted, and went to bed. And then woke up at 5:30 to get ready for school.
Don't be like me. Don't fanfic on weekdays.
Also, the series now has two completely canon spamano one-hots on Archive Of Our Own (My user is shippingeverything), so go check them out please! I'll be referencing one next chapter, and I'll explain the reference but reading the one-shots might be helpful
Please enjoy!
The Vargas' Family Villa, Italy (age 9)
"Mama, papa, I'm back! The game was canceled because..." Lovino paused at the raised voices of his parents, speaking... English. Weird. He snuck closer to the study where they were arguing.
"'S not like he did it, Achelle! Ali did, and y'know how she's been actin' since that German girl moved." His mother said, her ever-constant accent muddling the english words that Lovino could already barely remember.
"And that's supposed to make it alright?" His father yelled back, "I'm supposed to be proud that my son has pink toes because he made his little sister feel better?"
"Yes! You are!"" When his father stayed silent, mama sighed, "Ya know what? I don'know why I married you. You're fuckin' horrible."
"You married me because I listened to your dumb ass and you got knocked up with the boy," His father mumbled, his tone is more like what you would use for a minor complaint then an actual insult. But then he remembered what they were fighting about. "And I'm not going sit by and watch as you turn my son into a-a," His father paused, before continuing more quietly, and Lovino moved in because he had to hear, he had to know what papa didn't want, he had to make papa happy, "a fag! Don't you get it, Lola? That's how it starts."
"It's Lolicia, you dick," Lovino knew that she wasn't saying nice words (he had his mouth washed out on several occasions for using that word in particular), but she sounded the same way it does when she called them "Sweetie" or when she called papa "Darling". It was really weird. "And Lovino'll be fine. We are Vargas', after all; and Vargas men like women, right, baby?"
Papa made some sort of growling noise, only happier, and mama giggled, and Lovino went back outside because they were probably about do something gross, like kiss.
"Vargas men like women," Lovino picked the hot pink paint off of his nails as he said the sentence in Italian, "Vargas men aren't... 'a fah-gug'."
Himaruya High, 2nd Bell Biology (age 16)
"... I'm like, 'Oi, Bastard! Get the fuck away from her!', but in Italian so it's more like, 'Ehi, bastardo! Cazzo allontanarsi da quella ragazza!'" Lovino very nearly smirked and dropped the character he had built up when the girls tittered and sighed at the use of his mother tongue. Works every time. "And the guy just ignores me, so what am I supposed to do, just let this fucking random salivate over my baby sister?"
"Of course not! It's always so creepy when guys do that," A pretty brunette chimed, and Lovino could see the boys were listening in shrink into themselves.
"Exactly, bella. So I go over and punch the guy right in the... ah, what's the word?" And that was his favorite part, because he had lived in America for nearly four years, not counting the 6 years before he moved to Italy, but his accent was still thick enough that it worked.
"Nose?" Asked an eager redhead Freshman, whose grin nearly split her face when Lovino nodded in thanks.
"Si, si, I punch the guy right in the nose, and he hightails it outta there, and I never see the bastard again, lucky for him."
When the girls predictably fawned over how "manly" and "chivalrous" Lovino is, he preened because, for a second, he could pretend that the guy hadn't punched him right back and then proceeded to beat Lovino down.
"Ragazze, ragazze, it really was nothing," Lovino allowed the smirk to come this time, since he found that his smirk worked way better than his smile. "I'd do anything to help a pretty girl."
And any one of the pretty girls that he's passed up in favor of finding them a guy that fits with them would say as much; but he only did it because he liked having people owe him, not because he was actively avoiding the love struck teens. Because Lovino was, above everything else, a Vargas.
And Vargas men like women.
lovi! lovi i hate math so much dio
shut up bastard. youre annoying.
but loviiiiiiii
if i get caught with this note i will kill you
jajajaja youll be okay (^▽^)
you never told me how it went with that christina girl
shes with bruce now. she seemed happy enough when i waved to her earlier
but i thought you liked her? you said she was really pretty
she was a proj
she was annoying
oh
yeah oh.
now stop being conspicuous before mrs "im so old i helped make math" catches on
idk what you mean im n
"I can't believe I got in trouble," Antonio whined as they walked out of math.
"It's because you're a dumbass," Lovino said, blunt and unsympathetic as always. It was the third time it happened, and they'd only been in school for a month and a half. "You grin down at the paper and write really obviously."
"I can't help but smile when I think of you, Lovi," Antonio murmured, almost too quietly for Lovino to register. But he did hear it, and his face responded accordingly by flushing his cheeks a light pink.
"Antonio-" Lovino started, but they were already to the Caf, and Antonio's next class was halfway across the school and he had 3 or less minutes to get there.
"Well, I have to get going, see you later?"
Lovino rolled his eyes, pushing the incident aside. "I have to drive you home, of course you'll see me later, tomato bastard. Go the fuck to class."
Antonio chuckled and then-
And then he, the fucking idiot, in front of everyone in the hall and the Caf's glass wall, took Lovino's hand and pressed a quick, warm kiss to his knuckles. Lovino froze as his eyes widened and his face was probably a weird shade of scarlet by then, but before he could yell or scream or anything, Antonio was gone and Lovino was left holding his hand unnaturally far away from him and a twisting feeling in his stomach.
He ran to the bathroom because it was too much, too much, too much and everybody was staring at him and he had to get away.
"Sono etero," He splashed water on his face, repeating it, "Sono etero, sono etero, sono etero." He's so involved in convincing himself that he is a Vargas, he isn't a fag, he likes women, that he didn't notice that there was someone there until they clear their throat.
"Ah, sorry, I'll just leave, I didn't mean to-" The kid, a blond with long hair, seemed to fold in on himself the more Lovino looked at him, and stuttered his way through an explanation, but that wasn't what Lovino wanted.
"Shut the hell up, kid. Do you speak Italian?"
The kid looked shocked, but forced out an, "Um, no."
Lovino nodded to himself, "Good. Don't repeat any of the shit you heard me say. Ever. Or I will end you."
"Ah," The kid laughed a bit, before awkwardly tampering off when realizing that Lovino was serious as the plague. Lovino vaguely wondered if the rumors that he knew people in the mafia was still going around. "Right. Sorry, I'll go…"
"Wait," Lovino said before he could stop himself. Why do I always do this? He inwardly sighed. "People don't just run into fucking bathrooms because they're okay. What the hell is wrong, bastard?"
The kid hesitated, and Lovino was thankful that he didn't bring up the fact that Lovino himself was hiding in the bathroom too. "Um, well, there's this girl-"
"Of fucking course there is. Look, kid-"
"Matthew."
Lovino rose a brow, because the kid - Matthew - looked so resolute, like it took him forever to steel himself up to say that one sentence, and he was honestly impressed that Matthew had enough balls to interrupt him. "Fine then, Matteo," Lovino started again, using the Italian variant to see if Matthew would gather up enough courage to correct him again. "I'm going to help you."
"Oh, no, you don't have to do that..."
"I know," Lovino began walking out, only slowing slightly to glare at Matthew when he didn't follow quickly enough, "That's what makes me so fucking nice. Now, which one is it?"
"It's Ju-"
"Birdie!" And then Julchen fucking Beilschmidt was there, crashing into Lovino's newest project, trying to give him like 20 different kinds of water. She likes him, he thought absentmindedly, looking around for someone that a nice, quiet guy like Matthew would like. Before he looked over and saw Matthew smiling at her retreating back, several waters in his arms, the same dumb as hell look on his face that the Potato Bitch got when she was looking at Ali. Fucking hell.
"Dio Mio," Lovino ran a hand down his face, because of-fucking course, the guy would like the best friend of Lovino's main problem. "Per favore, tell me it's not her."
"Why? What's wrong with Jules?" Matthew asked, the very picture of defensive. This guy was smitten.
It was bad business to insult the matches, so Lovino waved away the extensive list of the Albino's faults. "Nothing wrong with her, per say. Well, aside from her being arrogant and a potato-"
"Potato?" Matthew's nose scrunched up in confusion, "What-?"
"-But it's more that she's friends with- Never mind. She's fine. Whatever. I can do this." Lovino nodded, his pep talk working because he could do this, he had had to make worse matches with worse people, and walked into the sea of tables. When he didn't hear the light steps of his newest assignment following, he turned around and scowled at the boy. "Are you coming or not, bastard?"
Matthew quickly scampered along, following Lovino to his back corner table where Dmitri, Chun-Yan, and her eternal Russian Shadow (More commonly known as Anya Braginskaya) waited- right by the best window in the Caf - muttering apologies along the way.
God, Lovino sure as hell had his work cut out for him.
Sono etero - I'm straight
Poor Lovi. Here begins the main arc of conflict. And may I just say, don't kiss people if they don't want to kiss you. Don't do what Antonio did, that was honestly a dick move, especially since he has at least a vague idea of Lovino's jumbled feelings.
The scratched out part of the note section says "She was a project"
Um, some things to clear up, mama and papa Vargas aren't evil or anything, they're just old-fashioned. If the Vargas parents knew about Lovino and/or Alice's sexual preferences, then they would probably be fine because they're their children and they do love them. They just grew up in a time where being gay was probably the worst thing you could be, and if your child was gay, it meant that you did a bad job raising them. While that's not an excuse for their behavior, I feel like you should know that they aren't like, super horrible and they would never hate Lovi and Ali.
And! New people sort of named at the end!
Dmitri - Nyo!Ukraine
Chun-Yan - Nyo!China
Anya - Nyo!Russia
See you next writing time!