Chapter 2

"Holy Jesus Fucking Christ, shut the fuck up!" Lovino screamed as he flung the remote against the wall. Nothing was working. He had turned their crappy TV set all the way up, but not even "The World's Craziest Car Chases Caught On Camera" could drown out the horrible noise. Alfred had proven one thing - that the walls were too goddamn thin. Arthur (yeah, he remembered his name today - he'd only heard it screamed out over and over and over for the past five lifetimes of two hours) came by to "visit" Alfred today, which was Alfred-speak for "have really loud, annoying sex with him". It was two in the afternoon, for fuck's sake! Who has sex at two in the afternoon? Lovino could hear every name call, every moan, and every space of hammering thud, thud, thudsagainst the living room wall. Lovino had nowhere to escape - it was even worse in his own room, and since it was a weekend, he had no classes he could conveniently go early to.

"You're just jealous, Lovi!" Alfred called through the walls, snickering. It was a sign how far into it they were when Arthur didn't scold him for it, just giggled, their snide laughter turning into hums and the rustlings of a crappy mattress.

"Go to hell!" he yelled back, trying and failing to bury his face in the couch cushions that were closer to Styrofoam than anything else.

Several excruciating minutes later, the thudding stopped and the loud moans and shrieks turned into soft pants and sighs. Lovino was finally able to relax and pick up the remains of the remote to reassemble it, turning down the volume of the TV with it and finally getting some peace and fucking quiet. As he was flipping through the movie channels, Alfred emerged from his bedroom in nothing but boxer shorts and a bad case of sex hair. Lovino grunted as he passed by the couch to get to the kitchen, but didn't take his eyes off the TV.

As Alfred was rummaging through the fridge for a Coke, Lovino asked, "So, am I roommates with you or just your sex life?"

"Wha-"

"Why didn't you just room with Arthur officially instead of putting me through Dante's inferno? I mean, he is your boyfriend and shit."

Alfred snorted. leaning back against the counter as he popped open his Coke. "Ever hear the phrase 'don't shit where you eat'? It's better that we're not, trust me."

Lovino frowned. "Not on my end. I'd rather stab myself in the ears than go through more of that."

"Relax, Lovi! Arthur and I are just having some fun, y'know?" Alfred took a long gulp of his drink with a shrug Lovino's way. Lovino sneered at him.

"Have "fun" on your own time. Preferably when I'm not around."

Alfred made a face as he swallowed, then protested, "Hey, Arthur and I have, like, zero time this semester during the week 'cause of schedule crap! If I could drag him over here while you're out I would, but, well, I can't."

"Why don't you do it at Arthur's place?"

"Because his roommate is there."

Lovino could feel a vein in his forehead pulse. "So you're telling me that you can't do it at his place because his roommate is there, but it's completely fucking okay for you to do it here while your roommate - me - is fully present?"

Alfred just smiled and patted him on the back. "It's different. We're friends."

Lovino growled, "I see no fucking difference between the two situations."

Alfred laughed. "There is, trust me. You're a lot more awesome."

Lovino wasn't convinced and glared at his unwavering grin as he started to formulate the best plan as to dispose of a dead Alfred. Before he could get past the differences in physical strength, though, something moved in Alfred's bedroom.

"Alfred, got your arse back in here, now!"

Alfred giggled. "Coming, sweetie!"

After Alfred returned to his room, enough curses being rained on his head to impress even Lovino, he snatched up his wallet and cell phone and ran from the apartment. He knew what was about to happen (more loud, annoying sex) and he needed to get the fuck out of there. On the elevator ride down to the first floor of his building, Lovino heard a weird gurgling in his stomach and frowned down at it, as if he could scowl away the hunger he'd ignored in favor of yelling at his roommate.

(It didn't work, of course.)

Lovino walked down the street toward the restaurant district nearby - the food wasn't too shitty, and the prices were college student friendly. He just needed to decide what he wanted to eat - pasta? pizza? lasagna? He didn't really care at this point, as long as it was tomato-based and gluten-heavy. As he got closer, he pulled out his wallet to see if he was carrying any cash, but, of course, he only had his bank card - he'd have to stop by the ATM first. Fortunately, there was an ATM next to the CVS along the way - it wouldn't take too long to get cash.

Like God would let Lovino's life run that smoothly.

There had to be a certain hot guy walking out of the CVS as Lovino fought with the ATM, and he had to not notice as this certain guy came from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.. Lovino turned, fists up and ready to punch someone's lights out when he recognized green eyes and a quick smile.

Oh fuck.

He couldn't run away now - he was still only halfway through his first battle, and he had shit to his name without that cash. He could always run away after the machine spit out his money and card, but he knew that would just make him look like a jackass. He needed to play it cool or else hot guy would find him even more weird. So he went with the ever so smooth -

"Why the fuck did you come up from behind me like that at a fucking ATM!"

Antonio just smiled. "I wanted to say hi!"

Lovino's mind boiled with confusion and stutters, pulling him between smacking him or kissing him on that fucking gorgeous mouth of his. He ended up doing neither, instead turning back to the ATM and punching the buttons on the machine hard enough to hurt. "Don't fucking do that! I thought was gonna get mugged or some shit like that!"

Antonio blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Lovino sighed. "It's okay. Just... think next time."

Antonio grinned and revealed his perfect pearly white teeth.

Fuck you, genetics, for blessing this man with fucking perfect everything.

Antonio leaned in and tapped him lightly on the nose.

"How about you let me take you to lunch as an apology?"

Lovino. Hot guy. Eating at a restaurant together.

No fucking way in hell.

"N-no! I-I mean, it's okay. Really!" Lovino stuttered.

"Don't be silly. It'll be fun! I know a great gelato place nearby where we can go!"

No, no, run away- Wait, did he say gelato?

Lovino squinted. "Are you paying?"

Antonio giggled. "Sure! Why not?"

Lovino was conflicted - on one hand. he needed to get the hell out of there and away from this adorable moron, but on the other... free gelato. Free gelato!

Lovino sighed.

Ice cream always wins.

Fuck.

…

"Here you go, sir! Enjoy!" the young woman behind the counter said brightly, handing Lovino a small plastic cup full of chocolate gelato with a little spoon.

"Thanks," Lovino mumbled, avoiding eye contact by looking around the store. The gelato shop was tiny, the counter taking up half of the floor space while the left side of the room was crowded with small tables and chairs.

Antonio reached out and placed his hand on Lovino's shoulder, making him jump a little (not that he'd admit that). "Come on! Let's sit over by the window!"

Lovino would have said something - a word or sound of agreement, something - if his brain wasn't busy screaming at him things like Oh fuck, oh fuck, he's touching me! Instead, all that came out was a strangled noise as Antonio started pushing him toward a table next to the front window. Lovino plopped down in one of the chairs while Antonio sat across from him.

For a minute, there was an awkward silence of them just eating their gelato. Lovino struggled, trying to think of a way to start up the conversation, but all that he could think up was kinda boring - "So the weather is kind of warm for this time of year?" was a shit conversation starter.

It wasn't until Antonio spoke up that the silence broken.

"So... what's your major?"

Shit. "I'm kind of, uh, undecided."

Antonio cocked his head in curiosity. "Really? What year are you?"

"I'm a sophomore."

"Wow, shouldn't you have declared a major already?"

Lovino looked down and stared at the patterns in the floor tiles. He felt like a loser - he really had no idea what he wanted to do. Considering his family history, everyone assumed that he would take over the "family business" when he got older, but the idea just made him itch.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I dunno. I just thought people're supposed know what they wanna do by now."

Lovino snapped, "I just don't know what I want to do yet, okay? Why do people always give me shit for it?"

Antonio bit his lip and looked down at his half-eaten gelato. Lovino scowled up at him, then sighed in defeat at the look on his face.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to snap on you like that. I just haven't figured out what I want to do with my life yet, that's all."

A grin spread across Antonio's face immediately. "Hey, no big deal, people change majors most of the time anyway, and it's not everyone knows exactly what they want to do with their life in college!" The conversation lulled as they both took another scoop of their gelato.

Lovino needed to keep the conversation going or he was going to scream.

"So, what's your major, then?"

"Management," he said in between scoops. A little bit of melted ice cream dripped from the corner of his mouth.

According to Freud, we all suffer inner turmoil between our id, ego, and superego - basic instincts, your conscious, and your morality, respectively. Lovino's id, for some reason, was screaming at him to bend in and lick that damn cream off, but his ego and superego were telling him that was probably very much a horrible idea. So he just stared at it instead.

Antonio cocked his head to the side. "You okay?"

Lovino snapped back to reality and turned red. "O-oh, yeah, I'm fine. Cool. Um, why are you in a psych class, then?"

"I still have to take care of some of my core classes, and this was one of them. Besides, Francis and Gilbert are in it, so I get to have class with them!"

"So... how long have you guys known each other?"

"We've been friends since, like, forever! We were in kindergarten together and been friends ever since."
"Great."

"So Feli is your little brother? I met him when I went to visit Gil one time! He's so sweet - and cute!"

Lovino could feel his blood run cold. Great, fucking great, even hot guy is charmed by his little brother.

Lovino frowned. "Yep. Feli is fucking perfect. Tell me something I don't know."

Antonio looked surprised. He didn't know talking about his brother would piss him off so much.

"I-I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

Strike two. Lovino was on a roll with snapping at hot guy today.

Lovino took a deep breath.

"Sorry, I don't mean to snap at you so much. I'm just a little tired, that's all."

"Aww. Did you sleep all right last night?"

"Well, yeah, but I couldn't take my nap this afternoon because my damned roommate decided to fuck his boyfriend all fucking day long."

Antonio burst into laughter. "Really? That sucks! What did you do?"

"I yelled at him to shut the hell up, of course, but he's an asshole, so I left and came out here to get something to eat. ...What the hell were you doing over here, anyway?"

"Oh, I just needed to pick some stuff up at CVS, but then I saw you, so I thought, why not? I'll go say hi!" Antonio grinned.

He seemed to do that a lot.

"Are you always this happy?"

"Si, Siempre estoy feliz."

"How the hell do you manage that?"

"I don't know, just how I am, I guess." He giggled.

"So, I'm guessing from the Spanish that you're Hispanic - what the hell are you, exactly?"

"My family's from Madrid, so I guess you can say I'm Spanish." Well, that accounted for the sexy as fuck accent. "You're not exactly American, either - your name's too different. Italian?" Antonio asked.

"Sicilian, for your information."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"No, it's different."

"Okay... I'll take your word for it."

Lovino felt like he should lighten the mood somehow, since he'd already fucked it up enough. Maybe he could at least show that he wasn't a total asshole.

"Uh, thanks for the gelato. You really didn't have to buy it for me."

Antonio smiled. "No, it's okay. It's my pleasure, honestly. I like hanging out with you!"

Lovino gagged.

Antonio leaned over and started frantically patting him on his back.

"You alright, amigo?"

Lovino coughed. "Yeah... just went down the wrong pipe. I'll be okay."

Antonio smiled for the hundredth goddamn time that day. "Awesome. I was worried there for a second."

Lovino tried to regain his composure by changing the subject from him almost dying by choking on gelato.

"So, you actually like hanging out with me?"

"Sure! You seem like a fun guy!"

Lovino didn't know what to say. Not many people found him "fun", especially people as hot as this guy.

Oh, what the hell, never look a gift horse in the mouth and whatnot

"Hey, do you wanna-"

"-And that's why they call me, bad company, I can't deny! Bad, bad company, until the day I die..."
Lovino frowned. What the hell?

Antonio pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and answered. "Hello? Oh hey Francis!"

Great, of course that French bastard would ruin the moment.

"...What? Okay, I'll be there in, like... twenty minutes? I'm out right now. Okay! See ya there!" He hung up and looked back over toward Lovino.

"Sorry, I gotta run. Francis needs me for something, but hey, it's been nice hanging out with you!"

Lovino tried not to scowl, but he wasn't doing a great job. "Yeah, same. Nice seeing ya."

Antonio got out of his seat and walked toward the door, but stopped a few steps away and looked back at Lovino with a grin. "By the way, you're just as cute as your brother, especially when you get all red in the face - like right now! You look like a tomato!"

Lovino threw his spoon at the idiot. "Shut the hell up!"

Antonio just laughed as he dodged the little plastic spoon. "See ya later, Lovino!"

Lovino sat there, staring daggers at the remnants of his gelato.

Goddamn it.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review~

EDIT: Thanks to P3 LadyChaos for fixing my horribly mangled Spanish~