AN: I should go ahead and warn you. I am on an angst fest right now. I just finished Mark of Athena. My feels have been shot straight into Tartarus. Proceed with caution, just in case that leaks into this.

To those who reviewed:

Evelylamine: Don't die!

Spamano4ever: (C109) Dang it. Thanks anyways. And yeah, I thought it'd be nice to have one of those moments.. (C110) And now you see why.

Enjoy.

Lovino hated hospitals. They held too many bad memories to be good to him. He raised a hand to the tube that was helping him breathe. He grasped it, like he wanted to remove it, but Antonio caught his hand and shook his head. "Please don't.."he said.

The thing that made Lovino follow along with Antonio was the fact that the tears still hadn't stopped and Antonio's words were still broken.

"Right, so, I have the discharge papers ready and signed, so, as soon as we can get Mr. Vargas unhooked, then he's allowed to go home."

The nurse's voice startled both boys, but Lovino was glad for the news.

Antonio was much more gentle than the nurse seemed to be as he removed the wires from his boyfriend and helped him up. He turned his back and allowed Lovino to get dressed in silence.

Lovino brushed Antonio's shoulder on his stumbled path to the door. "C'mon, bastardo, let's go home."

Antonio caught him just before he fell. "One step at a time, Lovi."

The nurse smiled at this and disappeared, allowing the boys to leave.

The entire way home, Lovino was tearing at the bracelet around his left wrist, trying to remove it. "Damn it, what do they use on these fucking things, superglue?"

Antonio looked over and rolled his eyes. "Just leave it on for a while, we're almost home."

"No, I want it off. Now."Lovino said, examining the plastic on it, trying to figure out how to remove it.

Antonio glanced at him for a moment before he returned his full attention to the road.

As soon as they pulled up and were out of the car, Antonio paused to help Lovino get the hospital band off his wrist.

Once it was off, Lovino was okay. He calmed down quite a bit.

Nobody bothered to pause and ask questions when the entered. Feliciano nearly tackled both of them in hugs.

Things settled down a bit. Lovino was given leave to recover from his trip to the hospital, and he was ordered on bed rest the entire time by Vash.

So, the first day he was able to go to school, it wasn't a surprise to him that he stumbled and fell quite a few times before they ever left the Vargas household. Antonio tried to catch him every time, but failed a couple times, and once ended up on the ground with him.

Vash sighed. This was going to be interesting. And not in a good way. No, of course not. Nothing was going good recently. Nothing.

Throughout the day, Lovino got better about it balance. He seemed a bit more tired than usual, and the group let him nap during their lunch and through their 'free period' brought on by an assembly that day. He needed it, since he had work that evening as well.

At work, Lovino had a lot of people saying how glad they were he was better. A lot of customers gave him soft smiles and said something along the lines of, 'glad you're okay, take it easy from now on'. Word had spread quickly. It kind of annoyed him, but he was glad nonetheless. People cared. It was different. For him, at least.

So, the bad news? I spent a day at the hospital today. As well as finished reading Mark of Athena. I don't know which I hated more. But...yeah..not fun. I'm still stuck with my bracelet. I can't get the damned thing off. Oh well, not worth the fight.