A/N: Thank you so much for all o the reviews! I originally wasn't too sure if I should do this story since I didn't have any plans besides the basic idea for it, but you guys really inspired me to keep on going. For the question from Book Thief101, Antonio's brain damage is from the car crash and I made it so they are unsure as to what specific parts of the brain has been damaged. Thank you for everybody who has read this and sorry for any mistakes!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Two weeks. It had been two fucking weeks of being Antonio Carriedo's personal nurse before that bastard /finally/ showed some improvement.
It's not like Lovino expected him to be cured right away-oh no, he wasn't that stupid. But Lovino was inpatient and stubborn, a bad mix when it came to waiting for people to recover. He was used to people showing some signs of improvement within the first couple of days of getting himself as a nurse and Dr. Bonnefoy as their doctor, but no.
This son of a bitch took two whole weeks.
Maybe it was because Francis, that perverted doctor Bonnefoy's first name, hadn't been helping out as much as usual. Their last patient, Arthur, was still taking tests to ensure his mental stability, and despite the fact that Francis was no longer needed, he insisted on staying by Arthur's side until he was 'fully recovered'.
This left Lovino pretty much taking care of Antonio by himself. Feeding, washing, medicine, all that fun stuff was left to the Italian nurse. And it was not easy. Thankfully Bella helped out often, since none of the other nurses ever bothered to try and assist Lovino. She always had to help Lovino lift Antonio from his bed and drag him to the tub, which wasn't far away thankfully. But Antonio was heavier than both of them, not in fat, but in muscle. This made the job already harder than it already was.
But the tan patient's improvement didn't happen when Lovino was cleaning him with Bella. No, it happened when Lovino was feeding Antonio lunch.
The recently unwrapped saran wrapped ham and cheese and whatever other vital nutrients and shit they crammed into there was sitting on top of the metal food cart, accompanied by some rubbery looking carrots, and for 'desert', some vitamen enriched gummies. They were supposed to be shaped like dinosoars, Lovino thought, but it looked like someone had taken a blow torch to each of the dinosaurs faces and melted a good chunk of them. They were now unrecognizable, colored lumps that sat in plastic bags while they waited to be consumed.
Normally, Lovino would feed Antonio his lunch, then get up, and go out to eat his own lunch, or maybe even go down to his apartment that he shared with his brother, Feliciano, and have some food there. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible anymore. Two days ago, while Lovino was gone for lunch, Antonio had decided that it would be a good idea to try and look out the window. That was across the room.
That son of a bitch.
He made it two steps before crashing and falling. Like a ship being covered by a raging ocean, he collapsed as he was covered by the thin blankets and pillows of his bed, and the surrounding monitors. Thankfully none of the equipment broke, but Lovino was then assigned to be near Antonio at all times.
So Lovino was required to pack lunch as though he was back in school again, and eat lunch while caring for Antonio. Which you know, Lovino thought was just fucking fantastic. His other patients, none of which had cases as serious as Antonio's, had been assigned to other doctors and nurses so this could happen, so the auburn haired nurse didn't have to worry about any of them. Nope. It was all about Antonio.
As Lovino finished setting out the glass of water for Antonio to wash down his pitiful, but apparently very healthy, lunch down with, he took out his own lunch as well.
He had taken his lunch in a brown paper bag the first day, and when Feliciano had found out, he flipped.
Going on a rant about how horrible it was for the environment and what not, he went out and bought Lovino a reusable, and apparently very environmentally friendly, lunch bag that had a tomato print on it. Not that Lovino was complaining, he loved tomatoes.
He pulled up an uncomfortable, metal chair next to Antonio's bed and looked down at the patient. Antonio's head lolled to the side and emerald eyes flickered towards Lovino's tomato print bag as his eyebrows drew together to form what Lovino had figured out was his confused face.
"It's my lunch, idiota. I have to eat too, you know," Lovino muttered as he opened it up. Normally he fed Antonio first, but the patient wasn't assigned to eat until later and Lovino was starving. All he had for breakfast that morning was a hurried cappuccino and a bite of leftover pasta. Damn alarm clock hadn't woken him up. Again.
Antonio's eyes showed understanding, or at least, Lovino liked to believe that they did. Lovino always searched for small signs that showed that his patients were still mentally /there/. As long as they weren't completely gone, there was hope for recovery. Antonio seemed to be trying hard on the inside to get better, but damn. At that moment, he had no physical improvement, and Lovino wasn't sure when he would start to get better.
Lovino stuck his hand into the reusable, earth helping bag and felt his lips twitch up in satisfaction as his fingers wrapped around a familiar feeling orb. The cool and glossy texture under his fingers indicated to him that this was, indeed, what he had been waiting to eat since he has woken up, and with that he withdrew his hand to reveal a perfectly round, amazingly red tomato.
And that's when it happened.
Thin lips parted, eyes wide with excitement, Antonio peered at the fruit/vegetable thing and let out a sound. Lovino looked at him with his own look of confusion until Antonio repeated the sound, louder.
"T-toma..." He mumbled, eyes not leaving the object. "T...oma. T-toma. Toma." Lovino's eyes widened as he looked down at the tomato.
"Tomato?" He asked, hoping that Antonio wasn't just making random sounds and was actually /speaking/. Or trying to speak. A jerk of the head and a small twitch of the fingers confirmed that it was the tomato he was talking about.
But that wasn't all. After saying that, the bastard's hand twitched more then suddenly shot out, making a weak grab for the tomato. "Toma..."
Lovino let out a completely manly squeak and nearly dropped the fruit/vegetable, but managed to catch it and instead held it close to his body, throwing a glare at the bedridden man. "No! Dammit, this is my tomato!" He snapped.
The response was immediate. Antonio's eyes seemed to drain of all the excitement and happiness that they had filled with when they had first seen the tomato, and he turned his head to the side so all Lovino was left to look at was a head of too long curls. A deep, rumbling sigh escaped the patients lips.
Well, fuck. Feeling guilt rise up in him, Lovino gently nudged Antonio's shoulder. The bare, tan skin was visible through the thin gown. "I-I'm sorry Antonio. But you have your own lunch, si? Would you like to eat that?" He asked in a slightly guilty tone. Cocoa curls shook from left to right in a forced, jerky motion but Lovino's heart swelled with excitement. Antonio had just said no! Granted, Lovino had wanted him to say yes or simply allow Lovino to feed him, but this was amazing!
"C-come on, Antonio. It's just a tomato," Lovino said, his voice slightly shaking with excitement. He received the same response-a shake of the head and an even deeper sigh.
If Lovino didn't know any better, he would've thought that Antonio was trying to guilt him into giving him the tomato. W-which Lovino would never do! It was his tomato, he had been waiting to eat it!
"Mr. Carriedo? Antonio...? Come on, aren't you hungry?" Lovino asked as he gently nudged Antonio's shoulder again. Antonio made no movement. Well, fuck.
"Dammit! Fine! We can split the fucking tomato, happy now?" The auburn haired man snapped, loosing his gentle nurse appearance from moments ago. Well, as gentle as his nurse appearance got.
The figure on the bed shifted, and when Antonio turned his head to face Lovino, his expression had been turned into to a large, lopsided smile on his face and sparking green eyes instead of his dull and rather pitiful expression from earlier.
"You probably did this on purpose," Lovino huffed, just to let the bastard-no, /tomato/ bastard know that he was onto him. Antonio made no sign that he had heard him since his eyes were too focused on the red sphere in Lovino's hand. Rolling his eyes, Lovino looked off to the side as he thought. "Ok... Well I guess we can split it by taking turns buying it," he finally decided.
He wasn't deciding to split it that way because he /wanted/ to. It was simply because Antonio's current lunch contained none of those stupid plastic knives so he couldn't cut the tomato. And breaking it apart with his hands would just result in a huge fucking mess and he did not want to clean that up.
Antonio's only response to that statement was to part his lips and let his jaw hang open slightly, obviously indicating that he wanted the first bite. Lovino huffed slightly but leaned over and placed the cool object against the man's lips.
And just like that, Antonio practically ate the whole fucking thing. He leaned his head forward to accept more of the tomato into his mouth and bit down loosely, the pale red juices running freely down his chin as his jaw started moving to chew and a low noise of satisfaction came from him.
Lovino let out an indignant shreik and tried to take the tomato away, but Antonio had already eaten most of it. "Y-you...you bastard! You tomato bastard! You did that on purpose!" All the now fuming Italian got in response was a large, tomato covered grin.
"Toma," Antonio said, eyes on Lovino's face as said nurse was staring at the pitiful remains of the tomato. He looked up, however, when Antonio said that word again.
"W-what? No! You don't get anymore!" Lovino growled at the other as he hid the remains of the tomato from the other.
Antonio jerked his head again and kept his eyes trained on Lovino's no doubt red with fury face. "T-Toma," he repeated, his hand moving up in a forced motion and landing on Lovino's cheek.
Lovino's cheeks heated up even more under the contact. The hand felt cool and after a second slid loosely down Lovino's face and landed in his lap. "Toma. L...l...lov..." Antonio bit his lip as his lips gaped as they struggled to form words.
Lovino's eyes widened and he looked at Antonio. Oh fuck. Antonio was trying to form words. He was trying to talk!
"L..Lovi. Lovi Toma," Antonio said as he grinned up at Lovino's face. Lovino stared at him for a second, his mind processing what Antonio had just said.
And then it hit him. Antonio had just called him, Lovino Vargas, a tomato. God dammit. Lovino felt his cheeks burn even more as he looked down at the grinning patient, whose twitching hand was still laying limply in Lovino's lap. Lovino wasn't sure if he should be happy that Antonio was trying to talk, or if he should be pissed off that he had just been called a tomato. Instead he stared down at Antonio before suddenly sighing.
"You better not fucking tell any of the other nurses I did this..." Lovino mumbled as he offered the rest of the tomato to Antonio. "We're not supposed to give you food and all that crap," He added as he watched Antonio messily manage to finish off the tomato. The juices dripped off his chin and landed on the thin gown, creating dark spots against it. Lovino sighed as he saw this and allowed Antonio to finish off the tomato from his hand before getting a napkin.
The juices from the tomato had also mixed in with the soft chocolate curls that ran down Antonio's neck and Lovino brushed them away as he dabbed up the remains of the tomato. After he was done he looked at Antonio, who had turned his head to the side and was focusing on the wall as his hand curled slightly, his fingers seeming unsure of themselves as they felt each other. It reminded Lovino of a small child, still unsure about their newly mobile bodies that they could move on their own.
After a while Lovino snapped out I his thoughts and lifted Antonio's hand gingerly and placed it back on the bed. Antonio's response was a low hum and a shift of his body so he was looking at the ceiling now, his hands continuing their strange and childlike movements as they grasped and curled around the metal poles of the bed.
Standing up, Lovino looked down at him. "Well, since you're starting to talk now, your schedule's going to start to change. Get ready, next week you're going to meet your therapist, Mr. Williams."