A/N: Hey everyone, it's time for the next chapter! See, I can update fast when I have time and a clear vision of what to do next. And thank you again for all my readers; you make my days so much brighter 3

Rhee-chan: Thank you for your comment, and your welcome. I think that by acknowledging my readers personally I can show them better how much their feedback actually means to me. Also, your picture request has been added to my 'to do list.' I'll try to get to it next week.

44mae: Yay, a new reader! Thank you for your comment; it makes me really happy when I see that this fic has new followers. And don't worry; Candice is not planning to kill herself.

Valkyrie: Ahh, thank you very much for reviewing again. Did I update fast enough? ;D

the killer imperfectionist: Thank you for your feedback! I'm really happy that you think that I did well with the emotional part. Actually, there will be GerIta in this fic, but it still focuses on Toni/Lovi and GerIta has a very minor part in it. Still, I must confess that I've been planning to write a companion fic for this that would be told on Feli's POW and thus it would focus on GerIta. I'll probably write it if I have time/people want me to do so :3

Also, many of you wondered about the pills. Well, the reasons behind Candice using them will be told in the chapter after this one.

Now, here's the fifth chapter, some Lovina/Antonio interaction here. Read and review please.

xoxoxo

Chapter 5

Finding Antonio's room was easy. It would have been easy even without Candice's instructions. Every door of the house was similar; they were white and wooden, except Antonio's one. It had been similar to the others once, you could still see the white color, but now it was covered on different pictures that were painted in it (most likely with finger paints). They were very childlike scribbles, something a little child would do, like bunch of different colored flowers, a sun, a bunch of greenish brown lumps that might be turtles and a red round circles with a hint of green – tomatoes. And lastly, there were three stick-figure-like people drawn in it: a child and two adults – Antonio and his parents.

Lovina studied the pictures a while before knocking the door, she had to admit that the drawings were rather cute and she couldn't help but to wonder if his parents had been angry at him when he had 'smudged' the door. Lovina remembered how shocked her parents had been when they had discovered her and Feliciana's drawings in the wallpapers.

Lovina wake up from her thoughts as she heard a cheerful 'come in' almost immediately after her knock. The Italian opened the door and stepped in to the room, but she barely managed to take a few steps before she felt a pair of strong arms pull her aside.

"What the hell?" Lovina exclaimed as she first recovered from the surprise and noticed that she was now practically sitting on Antonio's lap. She felt a blush to rose on her cheeks as her eyes made contact with the Spaniard's. Lovina wasted no time to escape from the Spaniard's lap and placed herself next to him on his bed.

"¡Lo siento! I didn't mean to scare you like this but you almost step on her!" Antonio apologized and pointed on the floor where a little turtle was crawling on the exact spot where Lovina had almost landed her feet on just seconds ago.

Lovina huffed as she crossed her arms. She was happy that she didn't crush the small creature but it didn't mean Antonio could touch her like that. "Well, why is it on the floor anyway. Shouldn't it be on its terrarium or wherever the normal people keep them? Dammit."

Antonio chuckled a little and took the turtle on his palms. "I usually keep them in the terrarium but I was cleaning it just a moment ago so I had to keep them somewhere else when doing so. People rarely come to my room so it's okay to keep them there", Antonio told which made the Italian to investigate the floor more closely. True, there were more than just one turtle, in total she spotted four of them.

"Well, when you said it's okay to come in, maybe you could have also given me a turtle alert!" Lovina growled but she didn't manage to be as harsh as she wanted to.

"I never blamed you", Antonio whined, "… and I already apologized, no?"

Lovina rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her sides. "Whatever. Just finish the cleaning or whatever you were doing so that you can put them back", Lovina grunted. She knew how clumsy she could be so it was far better if these creatures would be put back in their terrarium. Bad things could happen otherwise.

"Sí. It won't take long", Antonio stated and got back to the terrarium.

xxx

Lovina spend a moment of following the Spaniard's cleaning. There were lot of thoughts on her head and she had almost forgotten the reason why she ever came to Antonio's room in the first place. Lovina palpated the bag she was supposed to give to Antonio and she barely managed to control herself and not to examine its contents. Those might have been very private things. She had another idea. If she was forced to stay on the Spaniard's room while this was cleaning at least she could take this as an opportunity to learn more about the young Carriedo. After all, the best way to learn about new people was to check through their room.

Lovina started at the walls and was happy to notice that there were no dirty calendars or posters on the walls (it was quite typical for men of his age after all.). Also, with a quick peek on his nightstand and under the bed she came to the conclusion that there were no pornographic content to be found, unless he had hidden them well.

Antonio apparently deduced what the Italian was up to since he laughed a little. "Did my dad send you to raid my room?" Antonio wasn't kidding with his question. His dad did raid his room occasionally. Usually after, according to him, Antonio has spent too much with his perverted friends. Apparently he was afraid that they might infect him.

"N-no, I just felt like looking around", the Italian confessed as she investigated more closely the posters Antonio had. Most of them were football themed and Lovina recognized all the players in them. Well, at least she had found a topic that seemed to be important for both of them. Lovina, too, was a football 'addict' after all.

Other things that received the Italians attention were Antonio's desk that was full of photos of his parents (it seemed he worshipped them as much as they did him), a tomato shaped pillow, TV and VCR with a shelf full of videos. They were mostly either romantic comedies or documents. No horror, no action, no thrillers. Every guy Lovina knew from her neighborhood would have fainted from the shock if they knew that a guy who didn't seem to like about bloody and violent movies existed.

Well, so far Antonio seemed to be a rather innocent and kind person without big flaws and Lovina's image of Antonio even brightened when she noticed a guitar that rested against his bed. Lovina couldn't help but to wonder how well he could play and if he was good would he be willing to teach a song or two for her. She did play a piano a bit, which was mostly due the fact that it had been hard for Feliciana to fall asleep without a bed time story or a lullaby when she was little. There were times when their mother had to work late and because their father was really bad at telling stories and as unmusical as one can be had Lovina forced herself to learn a few of Feli's favorite songs.

Also, as Lovina had already concluded, Antonio was a turtle lover. There was calendar with turtles, he had a photos of his turtles taped above his headboard and his bedding was turtle themed. He had even a turtle plushie! Lovina wasn't sure what to think about it. It was both cute and freaky at the same time. The Italian took a closer look on it and it seemed to be rather old. Maybe Antonio had gotten it when he was little and it had grown to be very important for him.

"Any specific reasons you came to see me?" Antonio asked, getting the Italian's attention. He had finished his cleaning and was now putting the turtles back to the terrarium.

"Oh, your mother asked me to bring you these", Lovina responded and gave the back to the Spaniard. Antonio put the last turtle to its home and thanked the Italian as he received the bag.

He started to go through the stuff in it. There was more food for the turtles, a few sport magazines and something that really got to the Italian's eyes.

"Ah, my asthma meds! I was starting to get worried if she forgot to buy them", Antonio sighed with relief as he opened the medicine cabinet next to his wardrobe and placed the medical products there.

"You have asthma?" Italian asked. She did remember Candice mentioning that someone had some sort of respiratory diseases but it was hard to imagine Antonio with asthma. The Italian didn't know much about the disease but she remembered reading that exercise may cause asthma attacks. Judging from Antonio's muscular body he did quite a lot of physical exercise.

"Yeah, but it's not a big deal, I can control it quite well. I have a good environment to live – no plants whose pollen gives me allergic reactions nearby, no furry animals, nobody here smokes and there isn't much traffic or other sources of pollution."

"What about training, or are you telling me you used some fucking hormones to get a body like that?" Lovina didn't really care; she just wanted to find something that would defile the 'perfect boy' appearance of Antonio's. He was too fucking perfect to be real, he had to have flaws.

"Oh! Well, the effects of sports are quite individual actually. I'm okay with exercising as long as I'm not overworking myself. I mean, even a person without asthma can have similar symptoms if they burden themselves too much. Usually, if I have an attack during physical training, I get it when I'm outside and the weather is cold. Breathing too much of a cold air is very bad for me", Antonio explained as he jumped on his bed and motioned the Italian to join him.

Lovina sighed but sat next to him anyway. She didn't feel too comfortable about the situation and she really wanted to go back to her room. However, Antonio has asked her to stay and seemed to be very eager to spent time with her. Had Candice told Antonio that she had hired Lovina as her 'playmate' as well?

"So…", Antonio started carefully and stopped to think. He must have tried to figure out a good way to start a conversation, but he seemed to know nothing about Lovina and was now stuck to wonder what would be a topic that interested her. As funny as Antonio looked when was a pensive like this Lovina decided to take matters to her own hands.

"You have a very nice door in your room", Lovina told, having a hint of tease in her voice. She loved art and wanted to know if Antonio still liked to draw. Or even better, if there was a funny or embarrassing story behind the existence of the paintings, she wanted to hear them.

Antonio blushed a bit. "I-I've told mom that I want to paint it like it was but she won't listen to me", Antonio mumbled. If there was a topic he didn't like to talk about it was this. "I bet that one day, if she decides to sell the farm, she'd rip the door from its hinges and take it to the new apartment."

Lovina smiled teasingly at the Spaniard who seemed so uncomfortable that Lovina felt sorry him. But not enough to change the topic! "Aww, come on. There must be some story behind it. I'd like to hear it", Lovina asked as sweetly and innocently as she could. It didn't seem to convince the Spaniard though, which didn't surprise Lovina. Her sister had always been million times better with her puppy dog-look.

"If you tell me, I let you ask me any question you want!" Lovina promised, making the Spaniard finally surrender.

"Anything? Okay then. But promise me you don't laugh, this is quite awkward", Antonio begged.

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. Now, tell me already will you", Lovina demanded impatiently.

"Well. When I was four we moved here from Spain. Our former apartment had been very small so you must realize how shocked I was with the size of this farm", Antonio revealed and after Lovina asked reasons for their moving Antonio simply stated that they lived in an environment that was very bad for him with his illness. Lovina nodded, remembering the conversation he had had earlier with Candice.

"So, I was given my very own room – I hadn't had one before. Unfortunately for me my parents' room wasn't next to me but on the other side of the first floor. So I…"

Lovina chucked at the redness of Antonio's face. This seemed to be something VERY embarrassing for him and Lovina was almost positive that Antonio would do his best to get Lovina to the same position sooner or later. She craved the Spaniard to continue.

"Umm… It naturally made me sad that I had to be so far from mamá and papá, I was only four so I… I remember I started to cry. I was very afraid that since they were so far they would forget me or that they wouldn't find my room when I needed them to come see me." Antonio kept a short pause, searching marks of glee and amusement from the Italian's face and when he didn't discover either of them he continued. "I cried a while, even harder when mamá left at some point. I only calmed down after she got back with a set of finger paints and hugged me. And then… she said that I could decorate my door with the paints so that she'd always know which one is my room. And well, you saw the result", Antonio ended his story.

Lovina was stunned. Did the Spaniard really think that was embarrassing? Well, maybe boys would like to laugh at something like that but it wasn't that bad. And maybe Lovina would have judged Antonio as a 'mama's boy if she hadn't heard about the difficulties they'd been through. But for a sick and a small child it was only natural to want his parents near him.

"You were really worrying over nothing", Lovina said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "I don't know about boys but I can assure that every single of my female friends ("not that there is much of them', Lovina thought in her mind), would find that only frigging adorable and cute."

"Really? My best friends mock me about it all the time."

"I bet they are guys. Most guys are bastards", Lovina stated firmly, making Antonio blink a few times. He seemed confused.

"Eh, you don't like me?" Antonio sounded like a kicked puppy that had just been neglected.

"I never said that", Lovina growled, annoyed. "But I need to learn a lot more about you before I can state my holy opinion about you."

Antonio's mood brightened instantly. He leaned to hug the Italian who was too distracted to fight back. The hug lasted only a while but long enough to make the Italian's face completely red.

"Aww, you look do cute when you blush, like a tomato!" Antonio pointed out with a sing-song voice and managed only barely (and accidentally) dodge the Italian's head-butt.

The Spaniard didn't even notice what Lovina had attempted to do but he hurried to his chest of drawers and opened one of the drawers. He grabbed a small package that lay there, wrapped on shiny fuchsia colored paper. He hurried back to the already calmed Italian who blanked as she saw the package in Antonio's palms.

"This is for you, a welcoming gift", Antonio stated as he gave the box to Lovina. The Spaniard observed closely how the Italian started to unwrap the gift. He really hoped she'd like it. "Mom bought you a gift as well but she decided to give it to you tomorrow morning. She is usually the one who chooses the gifts for the workers because she knows better what they might like. But when I heard that we get a young maiden like you to work here I really wanted to buy something for you~", Antonio cooed, making the Italian's cheeks redden again.

Lovina did her best to ignore Antonio's stare as she finally had gotten rid of the paper. She opened the soft pink-clothed case nervously revealing a silver bracelet. Lovina stared at it in shock. This had to be a joke right? It looked way too expensive for Lovina to feel comfortable around it.

"I-I can't take this. I understand little gifts but this is too… it must have cost a fortune", Lovina protested and shoved the jewel back to Antonio, making him pout.

"But Lovi", he whined making the Italian frown because of the nickname. "I spend so much time figuring out what you might like and now you don't want to have it?" Antonio looked incredibly sad and helpless as he twiddled the box in his hands. Seeing him like that hurt the Italian for some reason.

"I-it's not that I don't like it, dammit", the Italian cursed. "You just shouldn't spend so much money on someone who you don't know!"

"Ah, but Lovi! It may seem like it had a high price but it didn't. It's mostly just cheap metal that has been coated with silver to make it look nice and genuine but to keep the price affordable." Antonio pushed the box back to Lovina who stared the bracelet. It was very beautiful but what if Antonio was lying about the price? "And if you think my gift is expensive, mom's is probably at least twice the price. I have already lost the count of how many designer bowls and feeding sets she has bought to the workers in total."

"Fine then, I'll have it", Lovina gave up. It was too damn pretty for her to resist and she didn't want to make Antonio sad. "But if I find out that this was fucking expensive I'll return it, okay!"

Antonio nodded with pleased look on his face. At least he didn't seem to freak out about her threat to discover the bracelet's origins, so maybe he was telling the truth after all, or maybe they simply had a different view of what is expensive. Lovina put the pink box to her pocket. She would take a closer look of the jewelry on her room. She didn't want Antonio to see how much she was already in love with the bracelet.

"By the way, Lovina. You said I can ask you anything if I shared the story of my door. I did, so can I ask you the question now?"

Lovina sighed. She had hoped that Antonio would have forgotten the whole thing but it seemed he didn't have as short memory as she thought he would. "Okay then, what do you want to know?"

Antonio pondered a moment what to ask. It had to be something that the Italian would refuse to tell him if she didn't have to answer. "Well, what is your most embarrassing childhood memory? I told you mine so I think it's fair you tell me yours", Antonio tried to sound as charming and sweet as he could hoping that this way Lovina would be more willing to tell him.

"As I said, it was not embarrassing. Your question is not fair!" Lovina argued but the Spaniard didn't seem to give up. He kept shaping the same request in a multiple ways but he didn't manage to trick the Italian.

Luckily for Lovina the phone rang. "Shouldn't you answer that?" Lovina asked, trying to change the subject.

"All the more reason to tell me quickly; It might be an important call and it'd be your fault if I miss it", Antonio said. He wasn't planning to threat the Italian but he was hoping he'd manage the make Italian to think so.

The Italian listened the sound of the phone, nervous. She had to come up with an excuse not to tell anything for the man but she was out of ideas. It seemed like she had no change but to try a compromise. "Okay then, what if you answer the phone now, and in return I let you ask me two things tomorrow. But neither of them can be the question you've tried to ask. Sounds fair no?"

Spaniard thought about the different options ending up to the solution that Lovina's suggestion was good. "Okay then, I'll bug you some more tomorrow then!" He stated happily. "Goodnight then Lovi!"

"Goodnight, Antonio", Lovina wished as she rose from the bed and headed to the door and out of the room.

She heard distantly how Antonio picked the phone and greeted someone enthusiastically but she had other things to think about. She pulled the box from her pocket and grabbed the bracelet, admiring it. She slipped it on her wrist and put the box back from where she had taken it. The bracelet had fish-theme in it; several types of fish both engraved ones and reliefs. She wasn't sure what had made Antonio pick that specific one, but the theme fit her perfectly well. Her horoscope was Pisces after all. She wasn't superstitious nor did she believe in horoscopes, but maybe she would check tomorrow what the stars were promising for her. For some reason she has a feeling that tomorrow would be a good day…

xxx

A/N: I still take art requests if you're interested. Also, let me know if you want me to write that GerIta fic I mentioned earlier!