"No, no, no, no, and just one more time so that we're really clear on this, NO." Lovino stomped his foot so hard it shook the table, his cat perking her head up to see what was happening. Antonio sighed, leaning his head on his hands and looking at Lovino imploringly.

"Lovi, it's really not that bad! Like I said, Francis isn't a bad guy – he just has some trouble understanding personal space sometimes! But he won't hurt you!" he insisted, watching as Lovino paced the room. "Really, what's so bad about this anyway?" Antonio sighed, leaning back on the couch. "He doesn't even know it was you, Lovi. Why not just drop it and act like you never got the e-mail?"

Lovino stopped pacing, crossing his arms and looking at Antonio seriously. "Because it's rude to do that, Antonio. I'm not that much of a dick, okay?" He shook his head. "I called you because I thought you'd have some kind of idea how to fix this! It's not like I wanted to even talk to him, so I want to end this really fast before anything goes wrong!"

Antonio shut his eyes, looking as though he were going to fall asleep. Lovino had been talking in circles for the past hour, and Antonio didn't understand what the problem was – Lovino had talked to Francis. That was all that had happened; it wasn't like he had agreed to meet him or anything like that. There was no point in getting worked up like this, but Lovino didn't seem to want to drop it. He opened his eyes just a bit, squinting them in the harsh sunlight. "Are you sure you want to end it, Lovi?"

"What the hell are you saying?! Yes, I want to end it! That's all I want!" Lovino shouted, stomping his foot again. Antonio groaned, shutting his eyes again.

"Lovi. Inside voice," he reminded him gently, patting the space on the couch beside him. Lovino sighed angrily but, clearly defeated, flopped down beside Antonio, resting a head on his shoulder. "Explain to me again what the problem is…quietly," he added, earning a soft snort of laughter from his friend.

"I was on omegle, and I talked to a guy for a few hours and we got to be friends so I gave him a fake email, and it turned out to be Francis…" Lovino said softly, shutting his eyes. "And now I just…want it to not have happened."

Antonio took a deep breath, petting Lovino's hair gently. "But you liked talking to Francis when you didn't know it was him, right?"

Lovino nodded, his voice quiet when he spoke. "I didn't know…I wish I'd known. I don't like him at all…" he mumbled, pressing his face into Antonio's chest. He could feel the rise and fall of it underneath him, warm and familiar despite all else that was happening. He shut his eyes, taking a few deep breaths before speaking again. "…you're comfortable, so don't move."

Antonio laughed quietly. "Sure, Lovi…" He shut his eyes as well, pulling the other man a bit closer and relaxing a little more. "…what if you talk to him as 'Vado' instead of as 'Lovino'?" he said thoughtfully, growing tired in the warmth of the sun. "Then you wouldn't have to 'be rude', but he wouldn't know it was you and you could keep not liking him…"

Lovino was silent, and for a second Antonio thought he had fallen asleep. But a moment later, Lovino answered quietly. "…that could work. I'm going to do that."

Antonio smiled, squeezing Lovino's shoulder lightly. "See? That wasn't so hard to solve, was it?" He yawned a bit, leaning his head back on the couch. "Mm…I want to take a siesta," he said thoughtfully, content with the warm couch and Lovino slumped in the crook of his arm. "Are you gonna join me, Lovi?"

Lovino chuckled, curling against him a bit more. "You always fucking come here and nap on my couch…yeah, I'm not getting up."

Antonio smiled, adjusting himself to make them both more comfortable before resting a hand on the Italian's hair, petting it gently until they both fell asleep in the warm afternoon sun.

The clock in the meeting room was ticking much too loudly. Lovino watched the second hand with his eyes – Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Over and over and over again…his eyes went to Feliciano's hand, doodling circles on a paper, the pencil scratching noisily. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Circle after circle, over and over again…he glanced to Gilbert, who was drumming his fingers against the table just a few chairs down. Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap. Too loudly, too noisily, too fucking distracting. Why the hell did everything in this room have to be so distracting? He obviously couldn't focus on his work, but…

He didn't dare move, and he didn't dare look up. Across the table from him – directly across, as in, if he looked up he would be at the center of his vision – was Francis Bonnefoy. Of course, fucking Francis Bonnefoy. And what right did he have, invading Lovino's life like this?! First his anonymous chat services, then his emails, now across from him at meetings…well, okay. Francis had always sat across from him at meetings, it was the seating arrangement. But still, he thought, that fucking idiot should have known better than to sit across from him after what he did! Not…that Francis knew he had done it. To his left, Feliciano's pencil seemed to only be getting louder, and to his right Gilbert's fingers were becoming more and more obnoxious as the other man hummed a guitar solo under his breath. The clock behind him was ticking ominously, so repetitive he thought he might collapse there and then, but he couldn't move because what if Francis looked at him and tried to talk to him?! Not that Francis had ever actually spoken to him unless Antonio was there. But, still! Francis should have known better, he thought, because he was a stupid idiot!

He nearly shrieked when the timer signaled two o'clock, Ludwig saying something about them 'picking up where they left off tomorrow'…he really didn't care. Thank God, Feliciano was getting up and putting his paper away, and Gilbert was running over to Antonio to talk about whatever dumb shit they spoke about. Sighing with relief, he took a sip of his water and looked up…nearly choking when he saw Francis still sitting in his seat.

Stay cool, he reminded himself, stay cool, he's just an idiot and he has no idea. He sighed, his eyes still on Francis. Who the hell did he think he was anyway, with his stupid blonde hair and his fancy clothes and his blue eyes. Those stupid fucking blue eyes. He just wanted to fucking stare right back at them, and keep staring, because they were so fucking blue and hell if that wasn't the stupidest thing ever…it took him a moment to realize that Francis was, in fact, staring back at him, and he hurriedly looked into his glass of water with interest. When he glanced back up to check, he saw Francis raising an eyebrow in confusion before shrugging and packing his things as well, getting up and walking off to meet Gilbert and Antonio.

What a jerk, Lovino thought. He watched his back, glaring so hard he was sure he could have burned a hole into the back of the man's suit. His ears almost perked up, though, when he heard Francis mention 'Vado'.

Lovino nearly back flipped out of his chair, sneaking towards the group and hiding behind a curtain in order to listen more closely. And to his surprise, Francis wasn't just mentioning Vado, he was gushing about him.

"Oh, if you two could see his emails!" Francis said excitedly, waving his phone around. "And non, I won't show you, but he's just so passionate and so kind…" He laughed softly. "It's only been a few weeks, but I feel like I've known him for forever!" The Frenchman sighed dramatically, staring at his phone. "And I sent him an email this morning, and he hasn't replied back yet! Do you think he's at work?"

Gilbert laughed, patting Francis on the shoulder. "Woooow. You need to calm down, old man. Don't get too attached there."

Francis pouted, looking very disappointed as he continued to stare at his non-active phone. "I know, I know. He's just another human, I'll outlive him like all of the others…" He crossed his arms, looking at Gilbert with a frown. "Well, maybe I just want another friend! It's not like you two are around all of the time."

Antonio laughed softly, and Lovino was shocked by how well he was not blowing his cover. "Sorry, Francis. It's been busy lately! Things, stuff, you know. Very busy."

Francis rolled his eyes. "So specific, Antonio." He smirked, elbowing his friend. "Maybe you've made some more 'friends' in the break room closet, hm?" Gilbert laughed, and Antonio gave Francis a disgruntled look.

"That's so mean! I wouldn't do that," he said, smiling again. "It's not very romantic."

Gilbert snorted. "Does anyone even do romantic anymore, though?"

"Vado does!" Francis said, brightening considerably. "Oh, he was telling me about how he gave a girl flowers the other day. The way he explained it all was so very sweet, it was wonderful," he said, nearly swooning. "Oh, I just wish I could meet him, if only just once! Such a romantic person absolutely deserves to meet the nation of love!"

Gilbert grinned. "Why don't you then? We have meetings in Italy all the time. What's stopping you?"

His eyes widened, and suddenly Francis was back on his phone, a huge grin crossing his face. "Nothing, you're right! I'll do it, I'll e-mail him right now and ask if he'd like to meet me, and it will be—"

"Hi, Lovi!"

Lovino froze. He was hiding behind a curtain, there was no way Antonio could see him, so why was he…

"Lovino, I can see your curl, don't hide!"

Shit. He leapt out from behind the curtain, moving to Antonio's side and glaring down at his feet. "Hey," he mumbled angrily, shoving his hands in his pockets. "What's up."

Antonio looked over at him, shrugging and looking completely innocent. "Just saying hi. Were you looking out the window?"

"Yeah, I was," he said, thankful for the cover-up but still trying to show Antonio how grumpy he was. Francis had been about to talk more about 'Vado'…

"Did you get my texts?" Antonio said, and Lovino picked up on the sudden urgency in his voice.

"No…?" Romano pulled out his phone to check. "Nothing from you. Besides, I would have heard it. My sound is on." Without warning, Antonio stepped on Lovino's toes, smiling at him brightly. Lovino yelped, glaring at him. "What the hell, bastard?!"

"You know, Francis was just telling us about his friend Vado who he was about to email and speaking of e-mails, do you get email notifications on your phone, Lovi?" Antonio hissed, a nervous smile on his face. Lovino shrieked as he realized what Antonio was implying – that his phone's sound was on and Francis was about to send an e-mail and it could give him away – and promptly threw his phone across the room at the back of Feliciano's head. Gilbert laughed wildly as Francis raised an eyebrow at him again, and Antonio sighed very lightly. At the very least, Lovino decided, the danger had been avoided.

"That's…cool, I guess," he tried to cover, looking away. "Well, I'm gonna go be somewhere that isn't here. Later losers," he said, trying to seem cool as he walked away. Internally, he was cursing. How could he be that stupid?! He would have to be more careful if he wanted to—

"Loviiiiiii~!" Feliciano's voice rang loud and clear from across the room, his brother waving his phone back and forth. "Your phone says you have an e-mail! Can I check it?"

Shit. Dashing across the room, Lovino snatched up his phone from Feliciano before sprinting back to the door, something along the lines of "I have to go" spilling from his mouth as he ran to the nearest bathroom and locked the stall. Once there, he leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths, opening up his e-mail and only finally realizing then what Francis had been saying before. Francis wanted to meet Vado. Francis wanted to meet him. And some very slight, Vado-influenced part of Lovino wanted to meet Francis, too…

(AN: Thank goodness, semester's almost over. I'll have a lot more free time to write since I'll actually have free time, but I can't promise regular updates. Still, more to come here, and some oneshots, and other things. Also, praying that the formatting isn't totally screwed up. Enjoy.)