A/N- Hm, this chapter had been harder to write... Happens, I guess. My answer was to stare at the screen and then try something. I don't know how it worked out. Did it?

Also, I realized my chapters were getting longer and longer. Until this one. Very short. Very sad. :[

One thing I realized when writing this chapter was that lots of stories talk about stealing wallets, but it's never discussed what happens to the wallets afterwards. You don't give them back, that would be stupid and possibly impossible. You don't waste it. I mean, would you toss out a (probably) perfectly good wallet? That's why we have pawn shops!

"How come Antonio doesn't come here anymore?" Alfred asked. He was lolling over one of the seats, watching the five others present with his usual cheer and a little boredom. "It's been like, what, four or five days? Do you think he went somewhere and didn't tell us?"

"Maybe you scared him off when you told him we were stalkers," Matthew teased quietly.

"Ah, I kinda miss him..." Alfred murmured, not paying attention to his brother, who frowned.

"We hardly know him." Arthur pointed out, looking up from whatever book he had this time. Francis dully remembered how Arthur had promised to credit him for whatever they found if "frog you just let me have a few minutes in the library no one's going to stab or shoot me for reading, you should do it more often". Or whatever.

"Yeah, but he was fun to talk to." Alfred replied, bringing Francis back to reality. "He agreed with me on Captain America! You guys think so too, don't you?"

"Ve, about Captain America?" Feliciano was so cute. Very cute. Sweeter than an ice cream sundae. But not very good at following conversations.

"On the cold wet dirt I cry," said their other beloved Italian with his usual sarcasm. Lovino, on the other hand, was much better at following a discussion, but much worse at participating in one.

"Lovino, you're no fun," Alfred whined.

"Bite me."

"I could. Right now." Alfred showed all him teeth in a wide and mischievous smile. Lovino's eyes widened a bit and he retorted in what was presumably Italian, which was lost on the culturally-and-geographically-challenged American.

"Lovino," Francis interrupted, "Antonio did not seem like the type to just stop after visiting so often. Far friendlier than that."

"So we did something wrong?" Arthur asked, not sounding bothered by anything but curiosity. Sounding. Francis wondered if he actually was. He and Antonio did get along in their own way, or at least that was the impression he got.

"Ve, did we hurt his feelings?" Feliciano asked, much more worried than Arthur.

"Maybe he didn't think we were worth his time." Lovino said. He stared out the window rather than looking at the rest of them. "Why would we?"

Why would he say that? "Lovino," Francis' voice was much more harsh. "You should really stop thinking things like that."

"Why?"

Because he could be so irritating. "Why is it you need a reason?"

"There's a reason behind everything."

Sounds a little self-serving, given the topic, Francis thought. "What if there isn't?"

"Then it doesn't exist." Lovino was quickly getting sick of the conversation.

Francis was not. "All right then: what if there is no reason behind the first reason? Or what if it is a reason you don't accept or believe?"

"Once again: bite me."

Figures.

Antonio thought. He thought about the and the bus and the questions. He thought about the kids, individually, examining all the characteristics he'd managed to notice during his visits. He thought about Gilbert and Ludwig and what they thought (that was a little harder).

Sometimes he spaced out and his mind wandered to churros and video games, but most if the time he thought.

Five days, few conclusions.

Well, no, there was a good conclusion.

The first and basically only conclusion was that he generally enjoyed the company of the bus kids. Why? He didn't know. Alfred and Feliciano were fun to talk with since they could always find funny topics, and Francis often had strange facts to tell him, and he was kinda developing a rivalry with Arthur, which was amusing in it's own way. Matthew he consciously tried to notice as often as possible, because Matthew always seemed to brighten a little at that, and he loved seeing Lili talk with her brother ("Not technically, but it's the bond that counts," Francis told him), since they both always looked so happy. And Lovi was also kind of funny in his opinionative nature even if he didn't always say what he meant.

So, if he were to answer Gilbert's question, then 'who'.

After five days, one down, one to go.

But if it was 'who', then did he answer Lovino's question? And if not, what was the answer? Or maybe there wasn't an answer and he just really liked them. But was that an answer? Maybe it was half an answer, but what would the other half be? Why again? How many 'why's did he answer until he reached the end? It was kind of like dividing by two over and over. Thinking like this quickly grew tiring.

His head hit the table of the outdoor cafe Gilbert had dragged him and Ludwig to. It was beginning to hurt. But he was pretty sure he had his answer.

"You okay, Toni?" Gilbert asked, taking a bite if his cake.

"Who." He replied, not loving his head at the moment.

"What?"

"No. Who. And yes, that question was Ludwiggy."

It took a minute for Gilbert to figure out what was being said. "Oh! Good job, Antonio! I knew you'd figure it out!"

"Ludwiggy?" Ludwig repeated cautiously.

"Not your problem, little bro."

"I think it is, if it has my name." Antonio zoned out the beginnings of a quarrel as he caught an interesting sight.

Vasch and Lili.

They were talking with an older woman, who was giving Lili something he couldn't distinguish (probably food, knowing them) from the distance. While Lili was distracting her, Vasch took something out of the older woman's back pocket. He stared at it for a moment (Antonio couldn't see his expression) before going back into the crowd.

Antonio was shocked. He just stole something. From someone who was giving them food at that.

"So you stole it?"

"Had to."

Yeah, he remembered that conversation but...

A hand then hit his head. "Ow..." Antonio turned to see an irate Gilbert and exasperated (more than usual) Ludwig.

"Were you listening?" Gilbert asked.

"To what?" Gilbert, rather than getting angrier, started laughing. "What?"

"You're so... Antonio."

"Did you see something?" Ludwig asked.

"Um, yeah." Antonio looked back to see Lili was headed in the same direction Vasch went. "Gilbert, I have to go."

"Go where? Hey, Antonio! You owe Ludwig some cash now!" he called after the running Spaniard.

"Owes me?" Was the last thing he heard from the brothers.

Vasch had first noticed Antonio coming after them before he reached the pawn shop.

There were people nice enough to give them food, so he usually felt bad taking their watches or wallets or whatever it is he could pawn off in the only store in town that would take their stuff.

Then he saw Lili's face, remembered they hadn't eaten since noon yesterday, and decided that guilt was a piece of crap.

That's what he had been deciding when he saw Antonio frantically waving his arms in a way that almost gave the gunner a heart attack.

"What are you doing?" he hissed, glaring at the ignorant Spaniard. "Why are you following us?" After the incident that lead the idiot to them, Vasch wasn't sure he liked Antonio (Fernandez Carriedo, he had immediately learned).

"You stole from that lady," he said. Because that answers my question.

"And?"

"Why?"

"Because we haven't had any food in twenty-four hours, and the others are tired as hell after spending the first half of the day trying and failing to remedy that." If he had to steal to keep them safe, well, then whatever to who or what those people were and did. He would not let any of them suffer because of him.

Especially Lili. And the Vargas brothers. And the twins. And Francis. And Arthur. That's not the point.

"Why..." He couldn't tell if Antonio was talking to him or not, since he was facing him but didn't really look... focused. Not that he ever does. "That question pops up a lot, huh?"

Vasch ignored it in favor of being productive. "I'm going to a pawn shop. Either leave or come." He took Lili's hand and began walking off without seeing the boy's decision.

Antonio (and strangely, the two German brothers from a couple weeks before, soon enough) followed.

A/N- It seems almost kind of cruel to pickpocket a person who gave you food. Desperation sucks, eh?

You people should try saying 'Ludwiggy' out loud. It's very amusing. :]

So, yeah, ended up being a short/possibly filler chapter. It was pathetic, I know, feel free to criticize the entire thing. It annoyed me. Stupid chapter. I will try fifty times as hard next time! And probably not have writers block!

Also! Antonio = finally understands "stealing" is actually real. It was kind of a reality he didn't really acknowledge. I mean, we all know about it, but you don't think about it all the time. I think he doesn't really acknowledge everything that comes with living on the streets. Like how you don't acknowledge fiction as real life.

Yup, he's treating their lifestyle like fiction.

How he thinks that'll end for them... Well, he's Antonio for a reason, I guess. :]

Gilbert may or may not see it a bit more realistically. And Ludwiggy Ludwig is Ludwiggy.