A/N: Sorry about the brief hiatus, my laptop needs to be repaired so I don't exactly have a copy of my writing files. Luckily, this chapter was saved online before that happened. And because it's finals time, I will be taking another short hiatus. Probably another two week one, so until then I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 5: October 20th

"Lovino, you need to talk with him."

"No."

Matthew sighed, falling backwards onto his bed and skewing his glasses. He had tried to get Lovino to at least message Antonio, at least. Lovino wouldn't even turn towards the Spaniard when they were in the same room. It was almost as if in Lovino's world, Antonio didn't exist anymore. "Lovino!"

"Talk with who? I don't need to talk to anyone right now."

Matthew gaped at Lovino's form on the other bed. "Are you serious? You're going to just not talk to Antonio anymore after you've been friends since you guys were toddlers?"

Lovino sat up from his spot and threw a half-hearted glare at his friend. "How the fuck do you know that? Almost no one here should know that. We've told no one."

Suddenly feeling a bit shy, Matthew rolled over, averting his eyes to the side. "Um, Gilbert did. You know how Antonio met Gilbert through Francis…" Lovino scoffed, muttering under his breath. Matthew blinked slowly, hoping to get some sense knocked into the Italian. He really only knew Antonio's side of the story, which was very short. Being close to Lovino, he wanted to get the other side so that he could help however he could once he had that information. But so far that wasn't happening. Lovino really was stubborn when he wanted to be. "Okay, then just tell me what happened. Antonio was upset when he got back to our table and only said a little before he completely shut all of us out."

He heard another scoff from Lovino, this time with a bit more force behind it, "great, both you and my brother want to know."

"I'm not your brother though! I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything!" he quickly exclaimed. "You know I wouldn't just go out and share that with the world. You've told about stuff that's bothering you before…"

If there was anyone that Lovino could trust in without having to worry about information leaking, it was Matthew. They were each other's confidents, one of the reasons they got along so well.

A quiet fell upon the room, leaving both of them in a cocoon of just their thoughts. After a few minutes, Lovino finally broke the silence with a loud exhale. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you what happened."

Matthew smiled, sitting up and urging Lovino to start when he wanted to.

" 'ton-… An-tonio tried to play with me," the Italian started off, "maybe he thought it'd make a fan-fucking-tastic joke to pull. I bet it was either of those other two losers' idea…" Lovino paused, laughing a bit bitterly although to Matthew it just sounded sad instead of bitter. "The bastard told me that he 'likes me more than others.' Goddammit, I'm so sure that he only said that to make fun of me! He must have figured out that I don't know, maybe that I just might like him more than just platonically? That maybe I was hoping that he fucking liked me back? That for once, I wouldn't just be shoved off to the side when I liked someone I thought I had a chance with? And to top it off, he decided it was okay to fucking kiss me and then say 'sorry, I wasn't thinking, it was a mistake.' Fucking hell, he doesn't think at all!"

Staring at Lovino on the verge of a fit, Matthew didn't know what to do. He had just learned that Lovino was in fact in love with the Spaniard and that said Spaniard had tried confessing and failed miserably despite knowing how Lovino would react. "Maybe this was all a misunderstanding…" he tried, being as careful as he could with the topic, "if you talk with Antonio you might be able to-

"I. Don't. Need. To. Talk. To. Him." Lovino gritted out. "He can disappear off the face of the planet for all I fucking care. He means nothing to me."

"But Lovino…"

"No. Antonio is no one to me."

Lovino stood up, grabbing his jacket, phone, and keys before heading to the door and leaving Matthew alone in the room.

Matthew was so sure that Antonio hadn't meant to hurt Lovino. He had seem so sad when he relayed what happened to the group. Francis sharing a look of sympathy with him, before focusing on making Antonio feel better.

They had all seen Lovino storm his way out of the dining hall a few moments before Antonio had appeared, shoulders slumped and an air of despair around him. For a few minutes nothing had been said until Antonio shook his head and mumbled a very soft "he hates me."

Antonio's version had been that he was so nervous, he stumbled over his words and probably made it sound horrible. His story made Matthew want to fix what had happened, mainly because Antonio wouldn't have confessed if it weren't for Gilbert and him trying to push them together in the first place… and since it was his fault, he would have to be the one to fix it.

Even if they only got back on tolerable terms, Matthew would feel better. Thinking about it, he glanced at his phone wondering if Gilbert had any ideas that weren't as drastic. (Although the last plan hadn't sounded too drastic.)

Actually, it might just be better to go with a plan that he came up with and only let Gilbert help him execute it. Yeah, that would definitely go better and a lot smoother.

~ooXoo~

"Okay, so let me get this straight. You want me to help you isolate Lovino with Antonio so that Antonio can talk to him easily?"

"Yes. It's not too hard, we should be able to do it, especially with the play still being worked on." Matthew smiled a little, picking up his mug to take a big sip. He could feel the way the liquid warmed up his insides as it made its way down his throat. Yes, he now loved the coffee and pastries from this little shop. He was also glad the coffee shop wasn't as crowded as the one on campus and really glad that Gilbert had shared the little gem with him. It was nice to actually hear himself think while enjoying a wonderfully crafted warm beverage. "You know they both need to go back to at least being able to speak to each other, even if they aren't so close anymore."
"Lovino's out for blood." Gilbert looked at him with a bored expression, almost as if saying 'this is Lovino we're talking about'… which wasn't wrong. Matthew sighed, gathering his thoughts so that his argument sounded way more compelling.

"Even if he was, which he's not, I want him to at least be happy. You can feel that both of them are already missing a piece of themselves, can't you? There was something that only Antonio could bring out in Lovino, something that even I can't coax out of him. And of course there was something that only Lovino could help Antonio with."

Gilbert sighed, allowing himself to chew on a rather big chunk of donut before speaking. "I guess that's true. But, there's not much we can do about Lovino not wanting to talk at all about what happened. Not even sticking them in a locked closet would be able to get Lovino to talk."

"Well, if it comes down to that then so be it."

Staring at him, Gilbert almost drop the last piece of his donut on the ground. "Dude, Mattie. That's not your plan is it?"

"No," Matthew said, not meeting Gilbert's eyes for a few moments, "but, like I said, if nothing else works… then we're just going to have to lock them in somewhere and not let them leave until they talk it out."

They sat silently together for a while, Gilbert just watching Matthew while he thought. The shop had just the right about of background noise to it that it wasn't completely silent, but was still quiet enough to facilitate brainstorming. It also kind of helped that the air wasn't cold, but was a warm and welcoming temperature. It was a nice contrast to the chill that constant outside now. Matthew loved autumn, but it was nice to be warm when it was possible.

"Hey, Mattie?"

"Hm?"

"Are you sure that you don't like anyone?" Gilbert glanced at Matthew quickly before redirecting his eyes towards the mug in front of him. "I know you said so last month… but things can change. They can change in a month, or in a day. Sometimes they change in an instant."

Matthew gasped silently. He had been caught by surprise, not really expecting such a thing from Gilbert of all people. And he didn't know what the other was trying to imply. All he knew was that he was suddenly caught by the other's red gaze, not knowing how to answer.

"I… I guess some things do change really quickly," he replied slowly, unsure of his words. Had his heart always beat this fast while holding someone's gaze? "Maybe I do like someone and I haven't realized it, maybe I don't. I haven't thought about that… I… feel like it's not too… important?"

"How? Everyone, literally everyone seems like they have someone they like! Even I like someone."

Blinking, Matthew looked down suddenly finding interest the smooth grains of the table. Not sure why his chest was suddenly feeling so heavy. "Really? Then why aren't you trying to get them to like you back?"

"I don't know. I feel like I'm trying, but my message isn't exactly getting across to them." Matthew chanced a glance up and found Gilbert looking at him before the other inhaled deeply through his nostrils and turned to the window. "And, when they do see me, they're too busy trying to figure something else out."

"Do you want me to help you? It's not really a problem for me to!"

Gilbert shook his head, smiling just a bit. But it only managed to get Matthew confused about what was going on. "It probably wouldn't do much if you helped. Plus, you're already helping people who didn't even ask for it."

"But Alfred is my brother."

"Lovino isn't. Neither is Antonio."

"But…"

"They're not related to you, they're just friends of yours."

~ooXoo~

Antonio had tried almost everything to get Lovino to hear him out. Not that any of them had really worked… Lovino was really trying to avoid him at all costs. All of their friends didn't even know what to do during lunch time. He would still sit next to Lovino, but Lovino wouldn't even look towards him or acknowledge that he was there. Sometimes it even seemed like Lovino would look right through Antonio, not even paying attention to the fact that Antonio was in front of where he was looking.

It felt as if someone was slowly chipping away at his heart, leaving a spot that would surely cave in on itself very soon. He had put so much confidence into what Gilbert had told him, hoping that what Matthew had said about Lovino was true… but apparently it wasn't.

Lovino really did think lowly of him even though they had been together for so long and had gone through so much with each other? Antonio couldn't believe that he had lost his best friend so easily and to something like that. He couldn't wrap his mind around that. It was just impossible to think that so many years of friendship had crumbled in the span of just five minutes. And his fault too…

God, he was so stupid to actually think that Lovino might have had feelings for him…

Sighing out loudly, Antonio stretched back fully in his chair, catching a glimpse of the world upside-down before shutting his eyes. He didn't want to anything except just lay around until he felt completely better. If only "broken heart" was an actual excuse to not have to do anything.

He heard a loud groan, followed by the squeak that he knew was made by the hinges of Gilbert's desk chair whenever the thing was spun. He knew what was coming next, but he really wasn't in the mood for hearing another lecture on how he should just give up on Lovino and move on with his life. How in the world was he supposed to just up and forget about such a long friendship? They had been third graders when they had met for crying out loud!

"Tonio, this getting ridiculous. You're moping around twenty-four seven!"

"Gil?"

"Yes?"

"If," Antonio started, slowly opening his eyes to look at him, "the person you liked rejected you like that, wouldn't you feel awful?" He watched Gilbert until he felt blood rush to his head and instead laid his head down on his desk. "The only person I've ever liked this much is Lovino. What else am I supposed to do?"

Gilbert moaned again, probably fed up with him. He could hear him getting closer before all sounds ceased and the edge of his feet found their way into Antonio's line of sight. "Maybe you could, I don't know, keep trying? Maybe talk to someone like Franny?" He felt something tap the top of his head, making him look up, still keeping his head mainly on the desk's edge. "Actually, better idea. Talk it out with Lovino even if you're the only one talking."

"What? No!" Antonio suddenly jumped up in his seat, twisting his chair so that he was perfectly facing Gilbert. "I've tried, I really have! Lovino just- Lovino just won't listen at all… and I can't blame him for it. Why in the world would someone like him, be interested in me? I'm just a bumpkin, a country bumpkin."

"Antonio, your family is rich. So they own a farm and you're more accustomed to the outsides, that doesn't mean you're a bumpkin."
"Doesn't it? Lovino would much rather have someone who dresses all fancy and would know the difference between different wines and the cheeses they go with."

Gilbert sighed, making Antonio feel like maybe he was blowing things out of proportions just a bit, but it didn't matter. Lovino wasn't interested in him anyways! There was nothing else that Antonio could do to try to fix things or even have them go back to the way that they were. Even before he had decided to tell Lovino, he knew that it would change their relationship, though he had hoped that it would have been for the better.

"Look. You really don't know what you're saying, dude. But, I do know that Mattie and I can help you, even if it's just a little. You just have to trust us on this, Tonio. You dress nicely enough to have Lovino constantly check you out," he stated, crossing his arms. After thinking for a moment, he commented, "and doesn't your family make wine? Dude, get it together."

Antonio chuckled a little. It was true that his family made wine, but he himself didn't. And there was no way ever that Lovino would ever check him out that way. Lovino had always been after the pretty girls with bright eyes and even nicer smiles. Of course he knew that Lovino liked guys (they were- had been- best friends after all), but even then Lovino had expressed interest in other guys. Not once had he felt that Lovino felt anything remotely close to what Antonio felt for him.