So many faves and alerts! Thank god! I love all you people!
I especially love the reviews! I'm glad they're positive…
And so, here we are, living our lives…
"Okay, okay, so! That's the house over there!" Alfred's voice was loud, excited, and (according to Lovino) grating as he announced their location. Lovino regarded the house dully. It was one of those simple ones in a normal, middle-class neighborhood, with a normal car in the driveway and some normal plants in the front yard, probably containing a normal couple possibly with some normal children who were living a normal life. It was very… normal. He'd expected the house to look more original, but it seemed like any other house in any other suburban neighborhood they regularly raided. It was disappointing.
Except it was also the house that held his precious tomatoes, so he'd forgive any unoriginality about it.
"So, yeah, it looks like the family's here right now, so we can't take any of the tomatoes," Alfred kept going.
"Al," Matthew interrupted him, "did you ever think that maybe top volume isn't the best volume?" He kept glancing around, like he might have been apprehensive.
"What does that mean?" Alfred tilted his head at his brother. Matthew just sighed and shook his head, so the younger twin shrugged and returned to Vargas brothers. "Anyway, we should probably go find our dinner. We've got all day, but why not, right?"
"I thought we came here for tomatoes," Lovino replied, obviously irritated, "Why would you bring us here if there were no tomatoes?"
"… Because you asked us to?"
Feliciano was watching the gate to the backyard with interest. "Ve~, do you think if we ask, they'll give us more tomatoes?"
"They might, if you don't mention we stole the last bunch," Lovino replied sarcastically.
"Ve~ really?" He seemed almost hopeful.
"No." His brother's face fell, but Lovino did nothing about it. Matthew, on the other hand, patted him on the shoulder, cheering him up again.
Antonio had spied the four boys out his bedroom window. Well, he'd originally thought it was three, but then he saw the last one. Anyway, he'd been incredibly bored before that. Gilbert was grounded for another run-in with the police (already the cops practically had the kid's parents on speed dial), and the other kids—Sadiq, Mathias, Lukas, Michelle, Kiku, etcetera—were all busy at the moment. And honestly, Antonio was too social a person to be able to entertain himself for too long. He was the kind of person that needed other people. So, when he looked out the window and saw four kids standing around in front of his house, he had practically squealed with joy.
Especially when he noticed that two of them suspiciously resembled the two boys from the bakery.
He took a moment to wonder what they were doing there and why their clothes were all ripped and stained with mud and possibly grass, but then he didn't bother with it—they were people! And those boys had been so interesting, so it was fine to see them again.
"Mamà, I'm going outside!" He called out, and closed the door once he heard something he assumed was an affirmation.
He ran up the boys without hesitation. The first thing he noticed was that they seemed ready to leave. In fact, the one of them—one of the two blondes—was suggesting just that when Antonio reached them.
"Hola!" he called out. They all jumped, froze, and stared at him. He noticed that two of them had apprehension written all over their faces, while the other two seemed ready to be best friends with him.
"Ciao!" The auburn-haired one greeted. "Do you live here?"
"Of course he lives here, idiot," The dark-haired one responded, scowling. Somehow, the expression was absolutely adorable on him, "That's why he came from that house."
The auburn one ignored the comment, "Do you like pasta? What's your name? You look older than me or Lovino! How old are you? Is it true there are toma—" His mouth suddenly and quickly was covered by the dark-haired one's hand, leaving him to only let out a series of incomprehensible muffled noises.
"Shut up, dammit!" The other two didn't really react to it, like they were used to it. They looked a lot alike—twins? Antonio himself was a little surprised at the dark-haired kid's language, until he remembered that the he had yelled out "shit" at the bakery. Must be a natural thing.
Antonio, pushing away his confusion, just flashed them one of his sunny smiles. "I'm Antonio, yeah, this is my house! I don't really eat a lot of pasta, but when I do eat it, it's really good!" He especially liked to smother it in butter and lots of tomato sauce. His mind drifted into thoughts about churros, which were especially good when dipped in chocolate, as he knew very well. He wondered for a moment how pasta and chocolate would taste, but his thoughts were interrupted.
"Ve~, you don't eat a lot of pasta?" The auburn one looked almost shocked. Antonio kind of worried—did he say something wrong? He hoped not, he kinda wanted to be friends with these four. And, looking at the horrified face, Antonio almost felt guilty for not eating enough pasta in his life. He kind of wanted to go out and fill his stomach with it right there and then to see that face cheer up.
Before he could stutter out an apology for hurting the kid's feelings, one of the others, a blonde with bright blue eyes and one cowlick sticking up wildly, stepped up. "I'm Alfred, a hero! This is my brother, Matthew, who isn't a hero but just as cool, and these two are Lovino and Feliciano!" He gestured to the other blonde, the dark-haired one, and then the auburn one each in turn. Matthew nodded in hello, but for some reason, he seemed wary of Antonio.
Antonio stuck his hand out to Lovino. "It's nice to meet you, Lovi!" "Lovi" stared at the hand, like he was unsure of whether to take it or bite it, so he retracted it before he picked the latter. "U-um, are you new to the neighborhood? I know it's called Shadow Ridge which doesn't sound very friendly but it's a fun neighborhood and everything."
"We're not new to the neighborhood, idiot," Lovino said, still tense. Antonio wondered why it seemed like the young boy didn't like him. Then he seemed to realize something, because his eyes widened and his cheeks flushed bright red and he looked absolutely adorable. "Wait! W-who said you could call me Lovi?" he snapped. Antonio couldn't do anything but giggle at the cute face he had on. "H-hey! Idiot! I'm talking to you!"
"I haven't seen any of you at school. Do you go somewhere else?" he asked, ignoring Lovino's continual—but completely adorable—protests at the new nickname.
"Yes." Matthew said quickly. Alfred looked like he wanted to talk, but then winced for some reason and didn't say anything. "We all go to an elementary school around thirty minutes from here. Well, Alfred and I are going to a middle school in the fall, but it's still pretty far away."
"Oh," He glanced at Lovino, a little disappointed he wouldn't be able to see the Italian firecracker at school. "Why so far away?"
"Private school." Matthew replied. "Our parents are religious." Antonio nodded, but wasn't really sure how to comment on it. He was pretty sure there was a private school closer than that, but that might have been a high school. He didn't know much on the subject.
"We have to go." Lovino said suddenly, sending another scowl towards Antonio. He wondered if this was kind of a default expression, but it hadn't changed (aside from that cute embarrassed face) since they met. "Things to do."
"Ve~, already?" Feliciano asked, sadness written on his face. It kind of cheered him up to know they didn't have him, but then it made him guilty for liking that sad puppy face of Feliciano's.
Alfred nodded. "He's kinda right… for once." He laughed as he dodged Lovino' swinging arm. "Vasch is gonna kill us if we come back empty-handed."
"Al, please be quiet." Matthew scolded, but Antonio couldn't figure out why. His eyes flicked back to Antonio and he smiled (it was almost as adorable as Lovi's embarrassed face), "It was nice meeting you, but he's right, we need to leave."
"Ah, wait!" Antonio ran back to his garden, leaving the other four staring after him, utterly confused as to why he so suddenly retreated. He quickly plucked four tomatoes from their stems, and rushed back out to the others. They were watching the backyard gate when he suddenly thrust the tomatoes towards them. "Here! Take some of these!"
The reaction to a few tomatoes was much more than he expected, as the boys took them quickly and eyed them hungrily. Only Matthew had the manners to thank him, as the other boys seemed like they were restraining themselves from eating them. But… that's what you do with tomatoes.
"All right!" Alfred cheered, earning a glare from Lovino, a sigh from Matthew, and a nod from Feliciano. "We'll see you later, Antonio! You're a cool person!" He grinned at him before turning around. "Maybe we should drop these off before we go back into the city…" he was saying as they walked off.
"It might be a good idea…" Matthew agreed quietly, but it was harder to hear him as they got farther away.
Lovino stopped when they were a few yards away, and turned back to look at Antonio, who was about to go outside. His face was as red as the tomato in his palm. He opened his mouth, and sputtered out "Antonio," but finally settled on a glare as Antonio waved at him and clutched his tomato tighter, but not enough to burst it. It made the Spaniard giggle.
"So, what, now we're rich private school kids?" Vash snapped at them when they told their story, not really noticing that Feliciano looked on the edge of tears and Matthew looked like a combination of frightened and fuming. "When someone catches you, you run! That's been the rule forever!" Suffice to say, he hadn't been particularly elated to find out that they'd befriended some kid in a neighborhood. Especially when that kid happened to live in what could have been their new food source. And he could harm any of them. Paranoia rose up at the thought. He didn't want this new "Antonio" to be a danger to him or Lili or any of the others.
He was scared. Although Vasch wasn't the type for admitting such a weakness, he feared anyone they gave their name out to, even when they added fake stories and gave no other information. He rarely even begged from the same person twice. But he's been on the street longer than any of the others, and he would not put them in danger because they didn't know as much as him.
"He's an idiot." Lovino replied defensively, biting into his half of the tomato (he'd been very reluctant to give up the other half until Vasch and Arthur forced him). "He fully believed it. And besides, we hadn't taken anything yet."
Alfred nodded. "Yeah, Vasch, we've got nothin' to worry about. We'll probably never see Antonio again!" He grinned in what Vasch assumed was an attempt to keep the atmosphere light. His mood only darkened with Lovino's expression.
"Bruder…" Lili tugged on his sleeve. She was watching him softly with those sweet, earnest Lili-eyes, smiling softly. "I think they were right to accept the tomatoes for food. I don't think Mr. Antonio is a danger."
Vasch, even if he was still angry, didn't argue further.
"And the older Italian one is really cute and his face can turn all red and it's adorable!" Antonio blabbed to Gilbert over the phone.
"You know, talking to you makes it seem like everything is made of rainbows and lollipops." The German (although he claimed Prussian) replied. On the other end, the Spanish boy frowned, but Gilbert had no way of knowing it. "So, about these kids, you know anything else about them?"
"They go to some private school a half hour away. Nothing else." He shrugged. "I think they live nearby, though, 'cause Lovi said they weren't new to the neighborhood."
"We should find them!" Gilbert's voice switched to his "conspiring tone". "We're gonna look for them them and it's gonna be awesome~." He singsonged the word "awesome". "See, all we need to do is find these four kids of yours again—what did you say their names were?"
"Lovino, Feliciano, Alfred, and… um…" Antonio thought for a second, trying to remember the name of the last one. He didn't really have a presence… he hadn't said anything that Antonio ignored, did he? Oh, crap. Now He felt twice as in the wrong, wondering if the mysterious last private-school-attendee was mad at him.
"Doesn't matter, we'll figure it out." Gilbert dismissed Antonio's guilt quickly. "Anyway, then we find where they live and surprise them! It'll be awesome!"
Another voice cut in. "You're not stalking some other people. That isn't right, Gilbert." Ludwig, Gilbert's younger brother, a kind of uptight person with intense blue eyes. How long have I been on speaker? Antonio thought.
He thought he heard muttering of a "Captain Obvious" before his so-called Prussian friend continued. "Of course we are, Ludwig!" Gilbert replied cheerfully. "You're helpin' us, too, because you need to be more awesome like that!"
"I am not—" Ludwig was cut off, and Gilbert muttered a curse under his breath.
"Crap, Mutti's home. If she finds me on the phone, I'm dead. Gott." He heard more admonishing from Ludwig, who apparently didn't know Gilbert had been grounded from the phone.
Something in that sentence struck the Spaniard as particularly strange. "Wait… she left you and Ludwig alone at home, while you were grounded, and she didn't think that you'd sneak out?"
"She doesn't have that kind of foresight with me! Only with looking for reasons to visit her boyfriends!" Gilbert hissed back quickly. In the background, he heard Ludwig say his brother should have more faith in Ms. Beilschmidt or something like that. "I gotta go! We're searching for your new friends tomorrow! Bye!" With that, all Antonio heard was the dial tone.
So… apparently they were looking for Lovi tomorrow.
I love writing Vasch in paranoia mode… I love short-tempered characters in general. I mean, Gilbert is awesome, but yelling at people is a joy~
Review, favorite it if you like it!