Loving a Stranger

by altera vita mea

"You don't remember, but I know you. We were- I don't even know how to describe our relationship. That sounds bad, I know. I think you might have been in love with me, although I cannot see why. That's just what I've been told. I acted as though I hated you, but I never did. I was afraid, because you were kind to me. I didn't know I loved you until you forgot me..." Spamano

2. Chapter 2

Loving a Stranger

Chapter two: A Farewell Party Means I'm Glad you're Leaving

"You didn't."

Antonio was refusing to look at me, his fingers nervously fiddled with the steering wheel. "I'm leaving tomorrow morn- ow!" Before he could finish confirming, I clenched my fist and punched him in the arm- hard.

"Bastard!" I growled. "Why the hell did you keep this from me?!" My chest tightened painfully, restricting the amount of air that got into my lungs and causing my breaths to come out in ragged, angry huffs.

Antonio finally looked at me with wide green eyes. "But we talked about it..."

"Yeah, a year ago. Plans change, and so I assumed yours had too."

I blinked hard and gulped, fighting the lump in my throat. Why the hell did I even care if he left? I hated him and his stupid cheerfulness, I despised the attention he gave me, yet why did I feel like... Like crying over this? Because I'll be alone again. The realization hit me so hard I lost my composure for the briefest moment, enough time for a small tear to slip from its hiding place.

Antonio saw it before I could wipe it from existence. Dammit. "Lovi... I'm sorry..." He murmured, reaching over to brush it away.

I slapped his hand and did the job myself, reddening at how vulnerable he had caught me. "Get away from me!" I hissed. "I hate you. You've been acting like everything was fine for who knows how long now, you let everyone know you were leaving except me. Why? You know what, never mind. I don't want to know. Take me home, bastard. And I hope someone drops a bomb on you so I'll never have to see you again!"

He shut up immediately, and good thing too: I was already fed up with excuses that hadn't been spoken yet. The silence that followed was heavy, the atmosphere was tense. I heard Antonio sigh and turn on the radio, trying to fill that gap. Then he started driving again- but he wasn't going the right way.

"Where are we going, bastard?" I demanded icily.

Antonio's answer was just as cold, and it bothered me. "To the party."

Even though his tone bugged me, I didn't care enough to back down. "Hell no. You're taking me home."

"Can't. We're late enough already."

"I'll walk home then."

"Fine by me. Whatever makes you happy."

Alright. I'd had enough of this. "Would you cut it out already?!" I snapped.

Antonio dared to take his eyes off the road for a moment to look at me. "What?"

"Watch the road, dammit. And stop talking so...so I don't know! Just act normal!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

I clenched my teeth. "Fine! I'll go to the party. Just stop!"

He suddenly smiled as brightly as he had before. "Aw! Thank you Lovi!"

"I still hate you," I muttered, successfully evading the arm that was attempting to wrap around me. But I felt slightly better when he was acting like the happy-go-lucky idiot that he is. I snuck a glance at him, observing the way he smiled, humming along to the weird Spanish song on the radio. His eyes crinkled at the corners and shone like bright emeralds, the sunlight lit up his dark hair and revealed normally hidden strands of caramel locks. Yeah, he was better when he was happy.

Antonio suddenly looked at me, his smile growing wider. I felt my face flush as I averted my eyes. I opened my mouth and let out a line of whispered curses that couldn't be heard over the music. He would catch me checking him- uh...looking at him in a way that wasn't murderous. That sounded better, and more accurate.

I was well into the fourth cuss when Antonio stopped the car. "We're here, Lovi."

"Don't call me that," I grumbled, opening the door of his car and stepping out. I almost regretted wearing a wrinkled shirt and the first pair of random jeans I had found in my room as I looked up at Francis' house. It was obvious that the Bonnefoy's were well off- and that was an understatement. Their house looked like something from a fancy rich person's magazine.

"HEYYYYYY! HE'S HERE GUYS! NOW THIS PARTY CAN REALLY START!" Some guy started yelling from the back yard, waving at us eagerly.

"Dammit Mathias!" That sounded like Gilbert. "I told you to signal us, not shout his name for the entire ficken world to hear!"

The blonde guy- oh, I remember Mathias now- stopped waving and grinned behind him. "Whoops!" He laughed, not sounding the least bit remorseful.

Gilbert marched over to him and sighed, looking over at us. "You already knew about it, didn't you?"

Antonio smiled. "I did. You weren't very discrete about it."

Mathias looked triumphant. "See? I knew I wasn't the one who screwed up!" Another guy- if I remember correctly, his name was Lukas- grabbed the loud Dane by his tie. "Sorry about him," he said, either unaware or uncaring of the choking noises coming from the other.

Antonio approached them, exchanged a few words, and followed them to the party, gesturing for me to hurry up. I sighed and trudged on behind them, attempting to fight of a quickly approaching headache. The backyard was infested with people I either barely remembered, or wished I hadn't met: most of them were from high school. They cheered for Antonio as he came in, and then crowded around him in a mob so thick I could hardly see him. I don't know why, but my heart nearly sank. Antonio and I were in completely different leagues: why he chose to be around me was beyond my understanding. But I knew I didn't belong there.

I decided to sit far away from the others, knowing that they wouldn't come talk to me anyway. So I picked a spot in the grass a good distance away, wrapping my arms around my knees as I sat down.

"Attention!" Francis shouted, waving an arm to get everyone to notice him and quiet down.

"No one wants to pay attention to you, bloody frog," Arthur retorted even as people began to hush up.

The Frenchman was unfazed, and winked at the Brit. "Oh Arthur, it's adorable how you pretend to hate me! But anyway, Gilbert-"

"The Awesome Gilbert!"

"-the awesome Gilbert," Francis continued with a playful eye roll to his friend, "and I are going to say a few words for our beloved ami, and then we'll start on the food and drinks."

"Ooh! Drinks!" Mathias cheered, having somehow escaped from Lukas.

Francis tried to get through with his speech, but he kept getting interrupted by some idiot every two seconds, so after a while I zoned out and switched to observing the others. Antonio was next to Francis with a smile on his face, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He occasionally scanned the crowd as if he was looking for someone. I noticed some girl near him- actually she was really close...so close their arms were touching. She was... Bella, was it? Oh right. She was that one chick who had been crushing on Antonio since the dawn of time, and since he is so damn nice she probably conceived the idea that she had a chance with him. Of course she didn't, for he had said that they were nothing more than close friends. Yeah, close is the right word, I thought, eyeing her uneasily. Bella seemed nice enough, but there was something that bothered me...

Gilbert was probably supposed to be paying attention to Francis, but he was one of the biggest distractions. When he wasn't interrupting he was flirting with Elizabeta while Roderich glared at the two from the edge of the crowd. From what I remember, Gilbert and Lizzy had practically grown up together, but since she was so tomboyish the two were competing about literally everything; from the number of push-ups they could do in one minute to who would get the better test score. Then in eighth grade, she had suddenly embraced her feminine side, resulting in Gilbert falling on his face for her. In fact, it had been one of the highlights of high school, watching egotistical Gilbert Beilschmidt pursue a girl so long, getting rejected and humiliated nearly every day. He had kept it up right until she started dating Roderich, this aristocratic pianist guy. Even though they were together most of our high school lives, Gilbert was still into her, even though he tried to act like he wasn't. And when they broke up right before graduation, he had been way too happy about it.

I wondered what was happening between those two: Lizzy wasn't rejecting him like usual, in fact, she had a hand in front of her mouth to muffle a laugh after he said something and hit his arm, but it was the playful kind that stood in stark contrast to the usual frying pan to his face. Gilbert's usual cocky smirk made him out to look as if nothing was out of the ordinary, but even from my distance I could see the excited gleam in his red eyes, the way he subtly edged closer to her, the victorious glances he shot Roderich.

Arthur was actually listening to the speech- which was actually really surprising, and so were Yao and Ivan. I thought I saw the Russian's scary little sister creeping on him in the crowd, but I wasn't sure. Alfred was as close to the food as possible, looking as if he were about to snatch up a plate when no one was looking, but his brother Matthew gave him a pleading look and he stopped with a loud sigh. In a manner similar to Alfred's, Mathias was gravitating towards the alcohol. Berwald shot him a look so intimidating the Dane took a few steps back with a nervous smile on his face, holding up his hands in surrender before thinking of a better idea. He grabbed Emil, Lukas' brother, by the shoulders and placed him in front. Emil slapped Mathias away and Lukas looked like he was reaching for the tie again, but Tino stepped in and somehow managed to keep the peace. Damn, those guys were weird.

I saw Kiku, a close friend of Feliciano and Ludwig, standing off to the side nearest the drive way like someone who was waiting for something. A car engine came up the road and turned off, car doors slammed, my brother ran to the small Japanese man and embraced him, probably apologizing for being late. Ludwig joined them at a calmer pace with a tray of food in his hands.

Gilbert had finally started his side of the speech when Feli caught sight of me and ran over. "Big brother, why are you all alone?" He asked me with a worried look in his eyes.

"So you knew about this too?" I muttered without answering him. "Care to explain why the hell you never told me anything?!"

He looked at his feet in guilt. "Ve~ I was at Ludwig's house when Francis called Gil to make plans. And you know Gilbert, he can't talk quiet. So we overheard him. He told us that it was supposed to be a surprise for Tonio, and also not to tell you because you would have refused to come if you had known it was a party. I'm sorry fratello!"

I sighed and shook my head. "Whatever idiota. Your excuse is lame, but I'm not angry with you." I just hate that fucking bastard Antonio.

"Is fratello sad that Tonio is leaving?"

"Hell no. I'm glad he's getting his big ass out of here." I thought I sounded pretty convincing, but Feli saw right through my facade. "You should talk to him, Lovino. He's been looking for you, ve~"

I raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

He pointed to where Antonio was standing, the Spaniard was in the process of scanning the crowd again. My brother waved and Antonio's green eyes rested on us. He smiled at Feli, then looked at me with relief. "Go talk to him, Lovino," Feliciano said, nudging me a little. "Who knows when you'll get your next chance." Dio, Feli was actually right for once.

---

Introductions

Mathias: Denmark

Lukas: Norway

Arthur: England

Bella: Belgium

Roderich: Austria

Yao: China

Ivan: Russia

Alfred: America

Matthew: Canada

Berwald: Sweden

Emil: Iceland

Tino: Finland

Kiku: Japan

Translations:

Ficken(German)- Fucking

Ami(French)- Friend

Fratello(Italian)- Brother

Dio(Italian)- God

A/N: And the second chapter is completed! Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the reviews/favorites/follows! You guys have made me the happiest girl in the universe! Whenever I recieved an email alert, my heart started pounding really fast and I couldn't help but dance around my room like an imbecile. Thank you so much!

And I feel so tired right now! My class thought it would be a great idea to do some stupid bike-a-thon for a class fundraiser so I rode nearly 40 miles… I'm in so much pain.

Oh well! Enough of my ramblings! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I had a lot of fun on that last part with the entire gang! I hope you did too, because they'll be around for the next chapter too. Oh, the next chapter…. *chuckles evilly* Okay! Thanks once again to all you awesome people!

I love you all!

altera vita mea