The wind blew colder than usual on the morning of December fifth. Lovino's breath made foggy clouds ahead of him as he walked to school, his brother skipping cheerfully next to him, swinging his arms much like a child would have. Lovino was in the middle of his Junior year with average grades like every average student, as the whole town for that matter. It never ceased to cool down in the winter days of Sparrow Creek. Bundled up and freezing, Lovino trudged through the half-frozen grass and into the rotting metal gates of his high-school. All around him were shouts of students greeting their friends, their girlfriends or boyfriends, even his brother Feliciano ran away from his side and into the arms of his muscular German boyfriend. Rolling his eyes at the disgusting display of affection, he continued to stomp through the halls with his nose held high, making sure to not look anyone in the eye. He was often made fun of for thinking himself higher than anyone else in the school, his holier than thou attitude flaunted in the faces of everyone. Strutting the halls like he was hot shit and into his deserted classroom, waiting for the bell to ring.

Before he could even open his book, the door slammed shut with the entrance of Lovino's greatest annoyance. Antonio, spotting the young Italian nearly immediately, strode over, sitting on the rickety wooden desk.

"Hola Lovinito," he greeted cheerily, forcing Lovino to look up at him. Lovino rolled his eyes in agitation, keeping his eyes on the boldly printed words but not reading them, having all his focus on ignoring the Spaniard. Antonio sighed, plucking the worn book from Lovino's grasp and shutting it with a resolute thump.

"What the fuck? I was reading that" he growled angrily, trying to snatch the book from Antonio's hands. Before any action could be taken to sever his Spanish hands from his book, he felt a swift palm to the back of his head, causing him to flinch and redirecting his murder plans to whoever hit him.

"Lovino! That was rude, what would Roma say," Feliciano said crossly from the desk behind him. His murderer's thoughts ebbed into a high annoyance, Feliciano was lucky he was the baby of the family. Antonio just put the book in his lap, his smile persistent and his eyes holding back a peal of laughter from the sight of the brothers. Lovino glared at the wall in front of him, determined now to not give the annoying guy the time of day today.

"Fine, keep it for all I care. It's a library book," He said stubbornly. Antonio only rolled his eyes and began to speak, knowing Lovino was listening anyway.

"You're so mean to me Lovi! Could it be that you like me and you're only embarrassed?"

Lovino went rigid at his words, his face blushing a dark red and grinding down on his teeth. Why couldn't the class be over, why couldn't he just run away or just kill the bastard? Oh yeah, it was illegal and he didn't have the money for bail.

He could not comprehend how someone could be as cheerful as his clueless brother, oftentimes even more annoying than him. The two got along swimmingly, always talking in class and out. This unnerved Lovino to no end.

"Stupid tomato stained piss pants. Why would I even like you? I can't even begin to tolerate you," he answered without missing a beat, his answer almost believable if it wasn't for his rigid posture and blushing face. Antonio wasn't convinced but just then, their teacher walked in and the Spaniard scuttled quickly to his chair before he was caught by the professor.

Distracted by his thoughts of how much he hated the brown-haired, green-eyed menace, Professor Honda began taking roll, this beginning the start of another painstakingly long school day.

"Lovino Varges?" Mr. Honda called and Lovino waved his hand dismissively, without care. He couldn't be bothered by simple World History talk today.

…

10:00 A.M.

This was undoubtedly the worst class of the day in Lovino's mind. The teacher was decent enough and nothing to write home about, but this wasn't what the older Italian loathed about eleven a.m. every day. It was, in fact, Spanish. Not because it was difficult for him, he was Italian and the Latin roots are very similar so it was easy to understand. It was yet another class with the bastard Antonio, who of course, tested out of the class and was the teacher's assistant, which made it all the worse. He had superiority over Lovino which aggravated him all the more. Why did he so happen to be in the same period, it was some cruel act of God punishing Lovino for being an absolute asshat for most of his adolescent life, he was sure.

Each step closer to the classroom doors made him queasy with anxiety. He had no idea why this was the worst, he had Antonio in a handful of classes but this seemed different, he didn't approve the fact that the dumb Spaniard had power over grading his tests and not the lazy teacher. He thought about all of this, steaming on the way to Spanish, he didn't understand why teachers would use students to grade their work. They are paid to do this, why leave it to a carefree idiot. It felt like whether Lovino passed or not, lied in his hands, and he was very much not trusted. Also, the anxiety that there is a possibility that he might fail a test and that bastard can taunt me in his brain every time he sees me. Not that Lovino really cares what the dumb, brunnette, himbo thinks about everytime he sees him.

All this was such severe inner turmoil that he did not see that he was about to trip over the curb in front of the dreaded classroom. So off guard that his hands barely had time to catch himself before he bounced his head on the hard concrete. He caught himself with barely a few centimeters between the unforgiving pavement and his beautiful Italian nose. His hair fell into his eyes as he panted from all the adrenaline running through his bloodstream as time stood still for a few moments. He could hear the whispers floating around him like poison gas and a cloud of haunting eyes. A few voices could be heard, asking him if he was alright. Lovino couldn't tell if they were teasing him or not so he didn't respond. His hands felt like they were on fire as they left the concrete. Fresh, barely bleeding yet, scrapes to his hands, rocks submerged into some sections, causing Lovino to hiss and wince in pain. He tried wiping the dirt off his pants with the backs of his hands, not to irritate the already torn up skin.

"Holy shit, Lovi, are you okay?" he heard a sickeningly familiar voice from deep in the crowd, slowly making his way closer. Lovino's face burned almost more than his hands did, how dare the stupid bastard literally ruined any social status he might have had, as little as it may be. He rolls up right at the exact moment that Lovino was caught with his pants down, treating him like a little boy toy or a three year old. So to show his detest, he turned and sent a fierce scowl of warning in his direction, huffing so much hair, it blew his hair out of his eyes like he was a pouty anime character.

By some trick of fate, some cruel God decided to have a teacher see this whole incident and began writing him a note to go to the nurses office, much to his dislike. Adding insult to injury, she sends him with her precious teacher's ass licker, as he'd like to call Antonio in his mind everyday for the past week and a half.

"I really don't need an escort, I'm not a toddler, señora," he protested politely because he was raised that first and foremost, she is his elder, additionally, she is a woman and if there's one thing the Varges family does right, it's respecting a woman. On another note, he definitely did not want Antonio near him, to see the pity in those green eyes. He would take anyone else at this point besides him, but fate, as always, was not in Lovino's favor when his teacher insisted and to cover her tracks mentioned that it was school mandate that a teacher's assistant must accompany an injured student when the teacher themselves can not in case something happens to said student on the way. Which Lovino thought was bullshit and she would just love to see him suffer and embarrass him further.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he gets there safe señora," Antonio chimed as he made advances towards the injured student, causing Lovino's face to flare and scramble to stand up, sending daggers towards the kid the whole way up, the pain in his knees screaming in pain causing him to hiss sharply. It is unknown what came upon the Spaniard or if he had a death wish, went to grab Lovino's arm to help him up. Shocked by his audacity, he yanked back his elbow which nearly caused him to fall backwards once more. He paused and thought for a moment. If he continued to fight, it would draw more attention to them and he just had to bite the bullet and let him escort Lovino to the nurse's office.

"Do not touch me," he hissed through his teeth and continued to walk towards the direction and assumed he would simply follow. Behind his back, Antonio smirked and walked a few paces behind and played along for Lovino's sake.

"As you wish," he said under his breath, luckily for his own sake, Lovino did not hear him over the panic alarm in Lovino's mind.