Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia: Axis Powers. All rights go to their creators.

Chapter 6: Art Project

Sometimes Arthur would go to Central Park for song inspiration, usually just to sit and bask in the atmosphere. Central Park was lively and although it wasn't quiet, at some point someone was going to do something that caught his attention or pissed him off.

It was around the end of summer, almost fall again. Arthur was sitting under a tree in a nice patch of grass, looking out at the rest of the park.

"I thought you were supposed to give ducks bread." Arthur heard Lovino say. He was with the albino and his other friend Antonio. They were standing on the edge of the pond, not too far from where he was. The albino was squatting, sprinkling a few of what looked like oats from his hand for the ducks to nibble on.

"Nein, that harms the duck's digestive system." The albino said, shaking his head.

"Gilbert, you said grapes were ok?" Antonio said, producing a plastic bag full of grapes.

"Ja, they love grapes!"

"Why would you waste perfectly good grapes on stupid birds anyway?" Lovino asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"They're not all for the ducks, Lovi." Antonio said, holding up a grape to Lovino's mouth.

Lovino's cheeks were pastel pink, and he grimaced before opening his mouth for Antonio to feed it to him.

Antonio then fed himself one, grinning like the radiant warmth of the sun. How could one man's smile be so bright?

"Hey isn't that, that blue haired guy you work with Lovi?" The albino said, Arthur had forgotten to pay attention to him, fucking observant twat.

Arthur ducked his head down into his journal for jotting down song lyrics, and pretended to mind his own business. He felt them all stare at him. Then he heard the crunching of dandelions and grass before he felt a looming presence.

"What the hell are you doing here, bastard?"

He looked up, the sun was on the back of Lovino's head, illuminating him as though he were some sort of angel, his hair a golden bronze instead of a soaked oak brown. He stood glaring down at him, hair being tousled in the breeze.

Central Park was massive so it was quite the coincidence that they were in the same spot.

"Last time I checked the park was free." Arthur snapped his journal closed.

Lovino put his hands on his hips, "I already see enough of you at work, now you gotta bother me on my off time too?"

"You came over here to bother me, I was minding my own business."

"What is that? Your diary?" Lovino reached down to grab his journal and Arthur caught his wrist, bringing him down so that they were nose to nose.

"Touch that and you die."

He realized just how close they were since he could feel Lovino's breath against his face.

"Alright, I won't touch your stupid diary. Now let go of me already!"

Arthur did, pushing Lovino back, noticing that the albino, Gilbert he could assume, kept looking in their direction, "You talk about me to your friends?"

Lovino winced, rubbing the wrist Arthur had grabbed."No! Don't stroke your fucking ego. They saw you so they asked about you. And I told them how much of an arrogant, argumentative, unattractive bastard you were."

Arthur closed his eyes briefly, a sharp inhale and exhale through his nose in an attempt not to get upset at Lovino's petty insults.

"Well alright, go back to your friends, you've insulted me so there's not much else you can get from staying around me any longer." Arthur said standing up.

Lovino turned back to see Antonio feeding the ducks, and Gilbert quacking to them.

"Do you wanna feed some fucking ducks or whatever?" Arthur blinked, he was inviting Arthur to join them. Had he misheard that? "You don't have to, you're obviously busy doing…whatever it is you're doing."

There had to be some kind of catch. But also the opportunity to embarrass Lovino in front of his friends was not lost on him.

"No, no I was just finishing up."

Lovino turned around and walked back over to the two idiots by the pond. Arthur followed a step or so behind him.

"I was confused when Lovi said you had blue hair, but then Toni said you were punk or something. But seeing you now that makes sense."

"Who the bloody hell are you?"

"Lovi you didn't tell your friend about the awesome me? I understand, my awesomeness is too much to put into words."

Lovino rolled his eyes, "We're not friends, and I care very little for you, you German bastard."

"I'm the awesome Gilbert." Gilbert held out a hand for Arthur to shake.

"Do you have some kind of speech impediment?" Arthur asked, ignoring his outstretched hand entirely.

"Nein, I have the awesome voice of an awesome angel."

Schizophrenic that's what he is.

"Lovi says you give him a lot of trouble at work. Do you come from a broken home?" Antonio asked him.

"What?"

"It's been proven that the reason you put others down to feel better about yourself is to account for the lack of love you received growing up at home. That's true for you, yes?" An exaggerated "Ch" sound stressed that "yes."

"You've got a lot of nerve saying that to me." Arthur balled up his fists. In response the man grinned at him.

"Antonio, I think you should shut up. I can handle my own work problems ok?" Lovino said, sort of getting in between them.

"Ok Lovi, if you say so." To which Antonio pulled Lovino into a tight hug.

"Toni, stop trying to psychoanalyze everyone. Just because Franny is a therapist it doesn't make you one." Gilbert said, and Antonio shrugged, with Lovino still in his arms.

"Did you get a new conditioner, Lovi? This one smells really good." Lovino's cheeks were a dark scarlet.

Gilbert proceeded to lean over and smell the man's hair as well, "It does smell good. What kind is this?"

"Don't smell me you creep! Get away from me!"

Arthur reached over and snatched a bag of oats from Gilbert. Then he walked quickly over to the edge of the pond and proceeded to dump the bag straight into the water.

The ducks started squabbling over the large quantity of food, wings were flapping, feathers were flying, and some ducks who weren't nearby started flocking to the large quantity of food. They splashed water all around.

"There the ducks are fed."

As the three men stood staring at the chaos, Arthur shouldered past Gilbert, stuffing the empty bag into his arms. Arthur looked back at them briefly, a smirk curling on his lips, before leaving the park entirely. A slight bounce in his step, when he got far away enough.

000000

Arthur woke up with a start in the middle of the night, a cold sweat running down the side of his neck, he clutched his chest and tried to catch his breath. He turned on his bedside lamp and felt around for his journal, it wasn't on his nightstand.

Where is it? Where is it?

Panicked, he started looking under clothes hampers, rugs, blankets and even the bed for the journal. He opened the closet and slid hangers to the side to check there as well. He ran out into the kitchen/living room space and flicked on the light. He lifted up couch cushions and looked underneath the coffee table. But he turned up empty.

He got back into bed and flipped back onto his pillow.

He brought it back from the park, right?

No. Fuck!

It was probably in the rubbish bin or even in the waste disposal by now.

The next morning Arthur was at work, his shift was coming to a close. Lili was telling him how excited she was about starting her junior year of college. And for him not to give up hope that someone he knew might've picked up his journal.

"Mhmm." Arthur watched the ticking clock on the wall as he waited for his shift to end.

The bell above the door to the cafe jingled. In walked Lovino, which was odd because it was the man's day off today, and a man he bore a striking resemblance to. Although the other man had auburn hair, honey brown eyes, and a paler skin tone.

The other man made his way over to Lili, excitedly gripping her hand to press a kiss onto her knuckles.

Lovino stopped in front of where he was at the counter. "I found something of yours at the park, bastardo." Lovino held up his journal. In response Arthur made a reach for it, but Lovino pulled it back out of reach. "Nuh-uh, now you owe me two favors. I'd like to cash in one of them now."

Arthur narrowed his eyes.

"Mi fratello Feliciano needs two models for his stupid art project that's due this afternoon. The fucker waited to the last moment to do it." Lovino grabbed the auburn haired man's arm and yanked him away from Lili to stand by him.

"And if I gotta go through this bullshit, so do you."

In response Arthur let out a growl, glaring daggers at the now trembling sibling.

"D-do we have to ask him, Lovi?"

"This is what you get for dragging me into your bullshit! If you'd done this shit earlier your fucking German boy toy could've helped you, and maybe even that French bastard Francis too."

"I get off in two hours. If you want, I could help. You don't have to blackmail Arthur, Lovino."

Lili spoke up then and Feliciano nodded vigorously.

"Isn't it due in two hours?"

Feliciano pouted, "It's due by midnight, I just said the afternoon so you'd help me."

"Well then you've got two models, and I don't have to do anything. Grazie Lili. See you in two hours, Azzurro." Lovino said, sticking his tongue out at him, and waving the journal in his face. Then they were out the way they came.

Arthur looked over at Lili whose entire face to the tips of her ears were a dark scarlet. Her gaze was on the floor. And Arthur couldn't keep up the glare he was throwing her way.

"It's alright Lili, you tried." Arthur said, patting the girl's head. She made a little whining noise in response and Arthur couldn't help but chuckle at her antics.

Arthur waited around for two hours, scrolling on his phone as Michelle came in to cover Lovino's shift as an amount of overtime.

Once Lili told her about their situation, Michelle couldn't stop the giggles from tumbling out of her mouth. They shook her so much that she couldn't even speak, let alone catch her breath. When she was finished after about a minute, she wiped tears from her eyes. All the while Lili's cheeks were scarlet.

"Good luck, you two." Michelle said on their way out.

They walked out onto the quad of the HetaU campus. He saw Feliciano sitting on a blanket with a tote bag slung across his shoulder.

Lovino stood next to him, Cheshire cat grin on his lips as he held Arthur's journal.

When they approached, Feliciano scrambled up from his position to greet them.

"This won't take long, I promise. My project is about showing contrast. I could have used any subject, but I wanted to go beyond mere apples and oranges."

"You're not making your case any better for Azzurro here not to beat your ass, Feli." Lovino muttered to him.

"You're telling me you could've sketched fucking fruits, and I wouldn't have to be here." He gripped Feliciano's shoulders, and shook him a little.

"Well technically Lovi's forcing you to be here but you know, I wanted to stand out! Please don't hurt me! I-I actually think you and Lili are perfect for what I'm going for."

Arthur let him go, his eyebrow raised, intrigued.

"Yeah! You've got that whole angry grunge look going on, and Lili's petite, cute, and nice." Feliciano held up his hands to form a square frame. "It's really just a few pictures I'm going to take, and then sketch them to really show what I want to."

And so Feliciano gathered up his blanket and led them to a building that was a street away from the quad, in bold letters he saw the words "Italy Center of Fine Arts."

Feliciano dug around in his bag for a moment to swipe his student ID and then they were led through a fully sun-lit granite building. The hallway was a long narrow pathway with glass windows making up the left wall. Arthur took up the rear.

His journal was in the crux of Lovino's arm. Lovino had a tight grip on it. He managed to take a glance at Lovino's rear end out of it being in close proximity. And was surprised it wasn't anywhere near flat. He mentally chastised himself to focus back on the journal.

If he could manage to grab it, he would be home free. Fuck his brother. Fuck this project.

And so Arthur made the decision to tickle him in order for him to drop it. Wiggling his fingers underneath the man's armpits, Lovino jumped and let out a little startled yelp in surprise. But he only gripped the journal tighter, crushing his fingers underneath his armpits.

"Y-youre not ge-getting this shit until a-after." Lovino muttered. He squirmed, and wiggled but no matter what Arthur did this bastard didn't drop it. "B-bastard." Lovino hissed.

Arthur received a painful stomp onto his right foot. "Son of a–!" The outburst caused Lili and Feliciano to stop whatever conversation they were having, and look back at them. So Arthur stopped his barrage of tickling and let a disgruntled breath out of his nose.

They were led into a room of sorts that had tarp, a stool and adjustable lighting. Feliciano pulled an old instant camera out of his tote bag.

Arthur and Lili were instructed into three different poses. Arthur was told to sit on the stool, sideways to Feliciano, and back to Lili. She was instructed to put her hand on her hip and to smile. Arthur could frown and look as irritated as he wanted. Feliciano adjusted the lighting to come from the left side. He added a bit of back lighting as well.

For the second pose he was instructed to face Feliciano and Lili was supposed to put her hands around his neck and rest her head on his shoulder. She was instructed to frown and he was instructed to smile.

For the third pose Feliciano moved the stool out of the way and they were instructed to sit back to back, knees pulled to their chests, facing sideways to Feliciano. Lili was to smile and Arthur could frown.

Then they were finished. "These are so good! Grazie! I can't thank you enough." Feliciano kissed Lili's cheek before he pulled Lili into a hug and spun her around. The girl giggled in response.

"Well here you go, bastard." Lovino said, handing him his journal. Arthur snatched it up with a dignified huff.

"Finally! This was a giant waste of my time. I have so much that I–"

And before he could react, he was pulled down and Feliciano was pressing a kiss against his cheek.

Arthur gawked as he met the man's gaze, cheeks warm. "That goes for you too." Feliciano said, idiotic smile on his face.

Arthur pushed Feliciano away from him, "I hope you drop out of art school!" Arthur spat as he stalked out of the building.

"What the hell was that Feli!?" He heard Lovino's bewildered exclamation on the way out the door.

000000

A few weeks later as Lovino was coming into work, Feliciano and some muscular blond haired man stopped in with him. He had cold baby blue eyes and a steely gaze that said he meant business.

"You brought your bodyguard with you, have you Lovino?" Arthur asked.

Lovino pursed his lips, "Hell no! This fucking brick wall is Feli's damn boyfriend. I wouldn't be against him kicking your ass though."

"Lovi! Don't say that!"

"What? He could kick his ass!" Feliciano started pushing Lovino toward the locker room. "You mess with Feli, see what happens!"

The blond avoided Arthur's gaze, he looked rather uncomfortable. Arthur briefly sized the blond up. The blond was taller than himself and clearly stronger than him too. Theoretically in a traditional fight he could in fact pummel Arthur into the ground, but in a street fight Arthur could win if he wanted to.

"I-I know it will not come to that." The blond said, his voice as deep as you would assume someone of his stature would be, but not as deep as Berwald's.

What does the man eat? Whole cows? He probably could easily bench press 150 kilos.

"What can I get you, Feli? And Feli's boyfriend?" Lili asked.

"Well I came in just to show you and Arthur my art project! I got an A on it and my professor even showed it to the rest of the class." Feliciano said as he stepped back up to the counter.

"That's great Feli!" Lili said, clapping rapidly and bouncing on her toes.

The blond walked up to the counter and asked for a cup of water. Those were free.

Feliciano dug around in his tote bag before pulling out a tablet of some sort. He turned it on before giving it to Lili.

It was of them, back to back, drawn in a sort of sketch-like style. He was outlined and shaded in dark blues, and Lili was outlined in pastel pinks. Although both of their eyes were vibrant green. He could see the image over her shoulder.

"Oh Feli, do we really look like that? I think you were too generous in your portrait of me." Lili said, looking up at the man with wide eyes.

Arthur didn't think so. She was adorable and kind, and exhibited a sort of virtue in all of her actions. The drawing reflected that perfectly.

Arthur grabbed a cup and filled it with some cold water from the coffee machine. Then he handed the cup to the blond. Arthur tried not to stare at the bulging veins in the man's arm.

"No, not at all!" Feliciano said, "I draw what I see."

Lili handed the tablet to Arthur, he could see the dark circles under his eyes. But there was a prettiness about him despite the fatigue.

"You're one of those 'I see the beauty in everything' artists aren't you?" He said handing Feliciano his tablet back.

"Nope." With finality, he swiveled on his heels and held out an arm for his boyfriend to loop through. "Ciao!" He gave them a wink and they left out the way they came.

So he's arm candy.

"God damnit he's so fucking extra!" Lovino said, having walked back up to the counter.

"Did you see the drawing, Lovino?" Lili asked him.

Alondra walked past the counter, saying goodbye to them all, and Arthur realized it was his time to leave, and rushed past the both of them toward the locker room.

Arthur quickly gathered his things and made his way back out, he said goodbye to Valeriu who was just entering the locker room, red scarf bundled up to his nose. He received a muffled goodbye in response.

Lili waved at him. Arthur waved back and was out the way he came.

0000000

Arthur was at an indoor pool, seemingly teetering on the edge. And then suddenly he was close to João who smiled at him. "Don't be scared!" João pushed him in, a supposedly friendly shove became a nightmare when Arthur hit the water.

Arthur was drowning, how he had gotten in this vast stretch of ocean, he could never truly guess. He was flailing his arms and kicking his legs while staring up at the sun. Alistair grabbed his arm, and pulled him down. Dylan and Connor followed suit, grabbing both of his legs.

He could feel that he was losing air, as the light from the sun turned dark the more he was submerged. He let out a scream.

….

Arthur woke up screaming as he sat up, looking around his bedroom frantically. His chest of drawers, and close doors staring back at him. He received a few thumps on his floor in response. His neighbors from below were telling him to be quiet.

Arthur clicked on his bedside lamp and swiped his phone from the nightstand.

Arthur squinted as the bright light of the phone lit his face. It was around 3 am. He checked a string of texts from João that he never answered.

J: Hey, how's it going over there?

J: You're giving me the cold shoulder, right Arturo?

J: How can I know what I did if you don't tell me?

J: Dyl said you weren't coming for Christmas. It's not because of me is it?

J: We need to talk, seriously.

Arthur let out a yawn and put his phone back down. Part of the reason he moved out here was to get away from João. They had become close friends in Uni, and by the middle of fourth semester Arthur started to feel the tell-tale signs of falling in love with him.

Which Arthur dove head first into with no resistance, if he was going to fall in love with anyone, his best mate was the perfect candidate. He was conventionally attractive: a beauty mark on his right cheek, warm brown skin, dazzling sea green eyes, and long wavy brown hair. He was a fantastic listener and Arthur already trusted him.

But of course he wouldn't tell João that, he didn't want to ruin their friendship or something cheesy like that. Or more realistically Arthur was quite insecure about if João would actually reciprocate his feelings.

But he didn't have to because João asked him out one day during their last semester. It was very casual because everything about João was tranquil, Arthur was the one who stressed over everything.

João had visited the Kirkland's for Christmas each year because João's family was back in New York City, so João had come into contact with his brothers and his father. And they already liked him as Arthur's friend, although his father took a bit longer to warm up to the idea that they were boyfriends, it wasn't so much of a stretch for them to like him then either.

Things were going great, at least to Arthur they were, but João said that he just didn't feel like it was a good idea anymore, after about a year of being in a relationship.

Arthur couldn't understand why, he racked his brain to see if he had done something to bother João. But João just told Arthur that it was him who was the problem, not Arthur.

Which definitely meant Arthur was deficient in some area of their relationship, João was just being polite.

So João broke up with him and shattered his heart into a million pieces. Arthur lied and said they could still be friends afterwards because his brothers still like him, and honestly he didn't want to lose him completely.

So, now Arthur was waiting for his feelings to pass, and the awkwardness to fade, because that was a whole can of worms he did not want to open.

Arthur's eyes were wet as he laid back down before he squeezed them tight and willed himself back to sleep. Tears ran down his cheeks and onto his pillow.

No, no he wasn't going to deal with this right now.

And then the heaviness of slumber overtook him.

A/N: You know, I wasn't going to have Italy here really at all but somehow he snuck his way to the front of this chapter.

Azzurro–sky blue

Thank you for reading!