AN: There are so many APH pairings it's hard to choose a favorite. Romerica is well on the way to becoming my OTP, though. Thanks in part to them being my two favorite characters, and also to Coffee-Flavored Fate for being a beastly writer. In the good sense of the word. Onwards~

TALA 1

First there was annoyance. Increasing steadily until it peaked at rage. There were words involved in there somewhere.

After—and during—the rage, there had been movement. Air rushing past his face, over his fists as he swung wildly.

Then suddenly. A violent fluctuation in the graph. The words stopped, the movement stopped, the rage disappeared.

Right. Because his opponent had punched him. In the mouth (so there went his shouted taunts, the words). He had stilled as he tried to take assessment of the damage (there went the movement as both he and his opponent-nemesis-jeez-that-guy-was-such-a-freaking -creep stopped dancing around each other and felt the red ooze slowly—or the other guy had just watched, not felt it, really, but the point was owshitfuck he was bleeding).

Rage was replaced with disbelief. The other had actually managed to hit him. That must have been why—when the other said "Leave, now" so, so condescendingly—he obeyed. He turned tail and left.

It seemed utterly unheroic, now that he looked back on it. And here he was, huddled between the shelves for mythology and linguistics at the college library. He held his hands to his face, trying to staunch the flow of blood from both his nose and his split lip simultaneously. The damn Russki had huge hands; he swore that punch had hit the entire lower half of his face.

He contemplated using some pages from a book to mop up the sticky liquid. As if on cue, a library aide showed up. He tried to sit still and not attract attention.

Ha. Like that ever worked.

The aide caught sight of him and squealed. It was an odd sound coming from a grown man.

"Hello," the crouching teen said. He moved his hand in a vague waving motion and attempted to smile around the red. Stupid red.

"The hell?" Aide exclaimed.

"Shh," the teen said reprovingly. "We're in a library." His speaking voice was just as loud as the other's exclamation.

"You be quiet," Aide retorted, and turned with a huff to look at the books on the shelf nearest to him.

"My name's Alfred," the teen said as soon as it was clear he was being ignored.

"Good for you."

There was a silent pause.

"Do you have any tissues?" Alfred asked.

The aide began muttering angrily, but didn't answer him.

"Hello~? Mr. Angry Library Dude? Did you hear my question? I asked if you had—"

"I heard you the first time, stupid. Stop bothering me and go bleed somewhere else."

"But I'll get blood everywhere."

The aide finally turned and met his eyes again—critical and utterly unimpressed.

"So do you have any tissues?"

"No."

"Oh. That's okay."

Aide turned back to the shelf, and Alfred watched him for a bit. He wasn't actually doing anything, just fiddling with the books and not really organizing them.

"So what are you doing?" Alfred asked.

"Working. Obviously."

"No you're not."

"Shut up! Am so!" Aide's face got red; he was obviously feeling defensive. So he wasn't working.

"So what are you doing?" Aide asked, tone mocking Alfred's earlier question.

"Bleeding."

"Well I can see that."

"No you can't; you're not looking at me."

"Che palle, don't play dumb with me! You know what I meant!" Aide turned to look at him once more, completely disregarding the books now.

Alfred smiled at him. He finally caught a glimpse of the elusive name tag, pinned sideways and half-hidden under the collar of the uniform.

Gakuen College Library: LOVINO

Oh yeah, he would make an awesome secret agent.

"So what do you do when you actually are working?" Alfred asked.

"What do you think, moron? I work in a library."

"Well I can see that."

"You—!" Lovino made as if he were about to hit him with a book. Alfred stuck his hands up in preemptive defense—only to have Lovino pause and stare at him.

"That looks pretty bad," he murmured.

"Yep," responded Alfred cheerfully. "I think I lost a tooth!"

Lovino was still staring.

"Wanna help me look for it?" he offered. Lovino's lip curled as he leaned back slightly.

"Why in the hell would I do that?"

"Isn't it your job to help me find lost things?" Alfred grinned mischievously.

"I help the students find books! Not lost teeth!" Lovino looked genuinely horrified; Alfred laughed.

The aide waited for the laughter to subside before asking his next question. "Are you even a student here?"

"Nope. Do I look like I can afford a private college?"

Lovino seemed briefly taken aback. "Well," he said reluctantly. "No, I guess not. Sorry."

Alfred waved it off. "I'm happy you thought I might be a student here, actually. Mostly people accuse me of being a street rat or a Mongol or something."

"Might that be 'mongrel'?"

"Whatever. Plus I'm not actually old enough to be in college yet. So I look older than I actually am, huh? That's pretty cool."

"I guess, bastard."

"Bastard's a pretty common one, too! How did you know?"

"Idiot!" (Alfred decided Lovino looked awfully cute when he was flustered.) "Why are you even here, then?"

"I'm recuperating after an epic battle with my arch-nemesis."

"Che, more like hiding."

"Am not!" Alfred protests immediately. Lovino looks vaguely amused, a smile tempting his face for the first time.

"Why don't you just go home and 'recuperate' there? Away from the books. Which are easily stained."

"No way, you know you enjoy my company," Alfred said with a grin. (Lovino decided Alfred looked kind of handsome with such a smile. You know, for a high schooler with a bloody face.) "And you don't really care about the books."

Lovino scoffed, but didn't deny it.

"Besides—no home."

A shocked expression crosses the aide's face.

"Well! Better go look for my tooth! See you tomorrow, Lovi!" He ran out, blood finally stopped.

Lovino watched him go. "How did he know my—wait, tomorrow!"

AN: So, this was done as a prompt in my creative writing class. The conditions were 1) a college library, 2) a homeless kid, and 3) something lost.

I hope someone caught that one line from the English dub. And a brief Aladdin reference. Yeaaah.