Lovino HATED being kept late from school. It meant that he would miss the bus. And that would mean that he would have to walk home. He hated walking home through the city. It was one of the things that he hated most in the world. And that was saying something, because there were a lot of things that Lovino hated. It wasn't so bad while he was in the main business district, he supposed, because even though it was crowded and loud and annoying, people tended to stay out of your business. It was worse closer to home, where he knew people and they would come up and talk to him, and ask him about how stupid Feli was doing at the new school.

As soon as the teacher announced that detention was finally over, Lovino was out of the classroom door and down the hall like a rocket. Locker doors that hung loose on their hinges rattled in his passing. Detention sucked, especially detention on a Friday. There was no way he was letting that darn teacher keep him in that darn room any longer than was needed. Stupid Mrs. Hassan, thinking that she knew what Lovino should or shouldn't do. She wasn't his mother! Once Lovino was out of hearing range, he slowed down to a walk, not relishing the trip ahead of him. Why did he even have to go to this stupid school that was halfway across the city? Feliciano got to live near his school. Why couldn't Lovino?

Lovino ignored the fact that the reason he didn't go to a school closer to home was because all the teachers in all the school near his home had despaired of curing him of his nasty temper.

"LOVI!" Lovino winced at the sound of that voice. No grown man should ever sound that excited. In a hopeless attempt to escape, Lovino picked up speed, pretending that he hadn't heard the man. Unfortunately, the other man had longer legs and horrible skills at picking up other peoples' moods, so he easily caught up with the teen and latched onto him. Lovino sighed as he was swept up against the other's broad chest. He felt squashed. His face heated up just a little bit. "What, Nonno?"

Vice Principal Julius Vargas beamed down at his eldest grandson, still not letting go of him, no matter how much Lovino squirmed. "Why are you still here, Lovi?" Lovino gritted his teeth at the nickname. Why did no one seem to understand that he hated that nickname! "Because I needed some help on homework." He snarled. Julius, however oblivious he may seem, could pick up the lie, at least when it came to Lovino. His face became a bit more serious. "Don't tell me that you were in detention again." "Fine," grunted Lovino, his scowl deepening, "I won't."

"Lovino," Julius said, slightly exasperated, and also more than a bit worried, "You have to stop doing this. I can only over look so many fights before I'm going to have to expel you. This is my job, you know. If I let you get away with this much longer, the whole school will be up in arms about me playing favorites." Lovino's face twisted up. Hearing such hypocritical words come out of the man's mouth made him feel sick. Sick and ticked off.

"Yeah," Lovino muttered to himself, glaring at the announcement board next to the door. The exit was sooo close. Yet so far. "Because playing favorites is only okay if it's Feliciano." He hadn't meant it to be heard, but Julius heard it anyway. The older man's eyes narrowed on his grandson's face, and he loosened his grip, so he could look Lovino in the face better. "Lovino Vargas." He said warningly, "You need to stop doing that. Feliciano is not superior to you. The two of you just have different talents. Everyone does. Your talents make you… you." Julius let go of Lovino and held out his arms in a partially pleading, partially questioning gesture.

Wow. Original, Grandpa. Could he have thought of a more clichéd thing to say? Maybe he didn't want to be himself! What was so great about being Lovino?! Nobody would ever like an unskilled, poverty stricken, loud mouthed kid from downtown. No one. Lovino could have bet any amount of money that anyone he spoke to on the way home would dislike him almost instantaneously. His little brother had no such problems. People would adore Feliciano even if he was punching their face in. Not that he would ever do that. He was too much of a "sweetheart" for that.

"Well, Feliciano's talent is obviously being better than me." Lovino huffed. Before Julius could grab him again, he bolted out the door, ignoring Julius's demand that he come back this second. The high schooler raced down the street, everything around him becoming a blur. He had been on the track team at one point, but had been kicked off after he cussed out some kid who cheated on a relay. It had been a while since Lovino had ran, but he was still fast enough to ditch his grandfather. Grandpa knew his usual walking path, and so he would drive that way. But Lovino wasn't going to go that way. He was so desperate to avoid his grandfather that he was going to do something he would have never down otherwise. He swerved down a new road and headed away from where the family apartment was, and into the high rent district.

On a normal day, he would have avoided this place like the plague. He always felt so out of place there, among the mansions, with all of the rich people watching him walk down the street. He could practically hear them counting his steps, waiting for the hood to get out of their little piece of heaven. Lovino's scowl deepened, and he wished so much that he hadn't moved schools. Not that he would ever say it himself, but he missed the people from his old school. He missed seeing stupid Antonio and his equally bubble-headed girlfriend every day at lunch, and spiky haired Lars, and that stupid loud mouthed Cuban kid. He even missed that freaky punk with a family would give the Social Services a heart attack. But wait, Arthur didn't go to his old school anymore. Arthur had gotten accepted into the same stupid art school that Feli went to. Lovino couldn't understand how it was possible that people even preferred that weirdo J.D. over him.

Now that he was here, Lovino was beginning to regret coming this way. He rarely came entered this area of town, and even though he was most definitely not lost, he still had to admit that he was having a little bit of trouble finding his way back home. Lovino rolled his eyes. Maybe he wouldn't go home. It wasn't as if his parents would care. Marcello was still at home, and Feli visited every weekend. They still had the cute ones, so it wouldn't make a difference if grumpy one got hit with a truck.

As Lovino wandered farther into the larger houses, he felt slight panic settling in a bit. He was trapped among the bourgeoisie! He rubbed the back of his head. This was slightly worrying, but he stubbornly refused to panic. He notched the speed up just a bit. Not cause he was scared though! Just because he could cover more ground at a faster pace.

A sweet voice called out, surprising him "Excuse me, sir, but are you lost?" Lovino whipped around. There, sitting innocently in the garden in front of one of the largest houses that Lovino had ever seen, was a doll. At least that was what Lovino thought at first glance. She was so petite and perfect that he could hardly believe that a natural person could look like that. A purple bow hung in her hair. She cocked her head in an inquisitive gesture, and watched him with doe-like green eyes.

Suddenly embarrassed, Lovino felt a blush rising to his cheeks, and he desperately tried to will it away. "I'm not lost!" He assured her vehemently. She giggled, then immediately stopped, her face assuming an absolutely adorable serious expression. "Oh, yes, of course not, I'm sorry." She flashed him a smile, to show that she was only teasing him. Lovino, much to his own surprise, weakly smiled back. He never smiled, not to his family, and definitely not to rich strangers. Even if they were pretty rich strangers. That thought only increased Lovino's blush, and he cursed inwardly.

"Where are you going, then?" the girl asked curiously, before putting her hand to her mouth in a very delicate display of embarrassment. "I mean, if that's not intruding…" Even though it was entirely ridiculous, Lovino found himself having a hard time telling her where he lived. Such an angel shouldn't have to hear about some demon's own personal Hades. But he couldn't bring himself to just rudely leave, when she had opened a conversation and all he had done was yell at her. And he couldn't think of how to change the subject, or even what to change the subject too. And turning her question down seemed to be out of the question, which was odd for Lovino. He slapped people's questions down all the time. But he couldn't bring himself to do that to her.

Blast it! She was messing him up! Her face was too sweet and cute to do anything rude to…

Wait, what?

Lovino's face had reached about terminal redness. The girl studied him, then turned and vanished into her garden. Lovino didn't know whether to be relieved or mortified. But then she rematerialized, and held a small plate out to him, over the fence. "Do you want a chocolate? I made them myself!"

The paranoid part of Lovino's mind whispered that someone that sweet couldn't be up to any good, and she was obviously trying to poison him. The rest of Lovino's mind, though, was completely full of blonde hair and big green eyes and ribbons, and so he didn't shout, or run away, or otherwise make a commotion, although he didn't respond to her either, still a bit wary. The girl withdrew the plate a bit. "I suppose I understand if you don't want to try one. Big Brother has told me you shouldn't take food from strangers. And they probably aren't very good anyway." She gave a self-depreciating smile, as though trying to make light of the slightly awkward situation, but some of the light had gone out of her eyes. The paranoid part of Lovino's brain quite suddenly found itself bound, gagged, and locked in a metaphorical closet.

"YES!" The girl jerked, startled at his outburst, and Lovino stumbled. "Er, I'll, um, try the chocolate, I guess." Lovino stuttered. The girl beamed at him happily, eagerly held out the plate again. Even the paranoid part of Lovino's brain had its mouth hanging open in slack-jawed wonder. He slowly reached out and took one of the chocolates. "Would you like some tea with that?" The girl chirped like a bird. Lovino nodded. "Uh, if it's not a bother…" His family would have been flabbergasted to see him being so polite, and to someone he'd never even met before. "Okay!" She said cheerily, "Hold this!" The girl handed him the plate and once again vanished into the garden. Lovino felt a little awkward, standing on the sidewalk in front of some random person's house, holding a china plate full of candies, but his brain wasn't really functioning at the moment so he couldn't really do anything else.

The girl returned with two teacups on small plates, and handed one to him. "My name is Elise." The girl informed him. "I'm Vargas. Lovino Vargas." Lovino mumbled back. Elise giggled at his unintentional reference. "Well, Mr. Vargas. It's nice to meet you." "Yeah." Lovino replied. "Vargas is Italian, right?" "Uh, yeah." Lovino said. Elise held her cup out a ways in front of her, careful not to spill on her dress as she slowly sat down on the grassy ground on her side of the fence. Lovino followed her lead, and also sat down. He didn't even mind that his jeans were probably getting dirty, and that there was gravel everywhere. The garden was a bit raised, so he had to look up to see her face, but that didn't bother him.

"I would let you in the garden, so you could sit on the grass instead of the cement, but Big Brother is very particular about stuff like that." She had seriously considered letting him into her garden? Lovino realized that he must have been mistaken. No one that innocent and sweet and perfect could possibly be human. She had to be an angel, or a goddess. Some type of lovely fairy living in her own Eden, a separate world than the concrete jungle surrounding them. Lovino faintly heard himself tell her that it was fine, he liked sidewalks. She laughed a bell-like sound that made his brain melt a little.

And that's how it went. She asked him questions, and he answered her. After a while, he relaxed, and began to talk some more. Before he knew it, they had finished off all the chocolates, and drank all the tea. Honestly, they weren't really the greatest chocolates, but the simple fact that the girl had made them and shared them with him made them the most delicious things ever. Lovino and Elise traded funny stories about their families, both laughing out loud. They made a funny sight, her lying on her belly so she was closer to his level, laughing away, and he sitting cross legged on the walkway, waving his arms about as he informed her of this thing or another.

Lovino found himself spilling all his woes to her, telling her about how his whole family seemed to favor his brothers, and how the jerks in his new school picked on him all the time, and how he really tried his best to get good grades, he did, but he just couldn't manage it, and everything always seemed to go wrong when he tried to do anything. Elise took in his stories with wide eyes, and never once interrupted. She told Lovino about how her brother was one of the managers of the family's security business, and she always loved to meet new people, but she rarely made new friends because she was homeschooled, and people who she did get to meet were often too intimidated by her family's reputation. They talked for a long while, before Elise looked around, and sighed sadly.

"I should probably go inside now. My Big Brother has to work late a lot, but I'm supposed to be inside by six." Lovino blinked in surprised, before likewise looking around, pushing himself off the ground along with her. He hadn't realized how late it was. He had also managed to forget that he was lost. Suddenly Elise reached over the fence and grabbed his shoulder. "Wait, you never told me where you were going!"

Lovino blushed, but for once he didn't mind. Even though he'd only known her for a couple hours, he couldn't help but feel he'd known her his whole life. He felt much better than he had earlier, and although he could have stayed there on the sidewalk before Elise's shrine of flowers forever, he didn't mind going home now. He found himself actually looking forward to seeing Feli tonight. He figured that if he could find is way back to the school, he could just walk home.

"I was heading for the Hetare High School." "Oh, Hetare High School?" Elise parroted to him. "You mean the one that you get to if you follow the next street down to the turn, and take a right, and then pass the cul-de-sac and follow the road until you reach Hamburger Street, which you take until you reach the And Go Pub, which is on the corner of Panda Avenue. Then the school is on the corner of Panda Avenue and 4,000 Street, correct?" Lovino was surprised, before smiling in relief. "Yeah. That would be it." "Well, then, you should get going. It's a bit of a walk." He nodded. Even after staring at this girl for the past few hours, he still was having trouble taking his eyes off her. He finally did it though, and waved as he walked away. She bent down to pick up the china, and when she straightened, she called out to him.

"Hey, you know, I'm advanced in all my subjects. If you want, you could come by if you ever need some help on your homework." Lovino swung around. "You wouldn't mind seeing me again?" He was rather shocked. No one had ever asked him to come back to see them unless they were family, or polite society demanded it of them. "Of course, silly!" Elise bubbled. "You're my friend!" Lovino blinked. She actually liked him? He hadn't scared her off? Even after telling her all that stuff about himself, she still wanted him to return?

"Remember, I'm at 3000 Alpine Way. I'll be out her 2-6 on week days!" Lovino nodded. "Anything else?" He asked, and then felt stupid afterwards for saying it. "Nope!" Elise trilled, "Bye-bye Lovi!"

Did Lovino ever mention that he loved the nickname Lovi? Cause he absolutely did. Loved it to pieces.

Julius Vargas had been driving around for hours, all over the city, trying desperately to figure out where his grandson had gone. After the younger Italian had ran off at the high school, his grandfather had been looking for him. At first Julius had just driven along the route that Lovino preferred to walk on, but when he reached his daughter's apartment complex and had failed to see his grandchild even once, Julius had tried three different possible paths. None of them had yielded what he was looking for.

It had been almost an hour since he had last seen Lovi, and so Julius had tried calling Lovi, in case he had just gone somewhere to calm himself down a bit. Julius had not been answered by his grandson but by his daughter, who was wondering why her eldest had not yet arrived home. Julius then had the unfortunate task of informing his daughter that her most moody child was having another inferiority-complex fit, and that he had ran off to some unknown location. That had not been a pleasant conversation.

The entire family was out searching for Lovino now. Julius's daughter, Julia, was nearly hysterical, and her husband seemed to be teetering between that and wanting to strangle his son. Feliciano and his father were looking around downtown, near the shops that Lovino liked to frequent, while Marcello was still at home in the apartment with Julia, waiting to see if Lovi would show up at home. Julia had refused to let Marcello out of her sight, and she was probably just sitting in the living room, hugging him and sobbing on his shoulder. The Vargas's weren't known for being the most emotionally stalwart of people. Bella and Lars were looking in the area around their school, and Antonio had driven to Hetare High with Carlos, to look there. But so far they were still lacking one Lovino Vargas.

Julius was double checking once again with all of the shopkeepers on Lovino's walking path to make absolutely certain that they hadn't seen him recently. He was leaving the book store for the second time that evening when he saw a familiar dull green jacket heading down the street, with a familiar curl bobbing with the gait. Julius practically sprinted down the street and tackled his grandson. Lovino struggled a little in his arms, before apparently recognizing the person who had assaulted him. "Oh, Lovi, thank God I found you." Julius said. His voice was thick and cracking. There had been a brief time there were a small part of Julius was worried that Lovino might had committed suicide. Lovino wasn't a particularly predictable person, but it was a good rule of thumb that the more annoyed he seemed, the more upset he usually was.

Lovino's head turned up, so that he was looking at Julius's face. He blinked at his grandfather. In a not-really-paying-attention way, he said, "You sound like you just found a missing million dollar lottery ticket." Julius pulled Lovino closer to his chest, deeply relieved to have found the missing child. "Lottery tickets can all wash down the drain for all I care. I just found something much better." Lovino seemed to snap out of whatever dreamland he was in, and focused on his grandfather's face. "What?" he asked, looking genuinely confused. "Oh, Lovi." Grandpa Julius sighed. He really hated it, the fact that Lovi apparently did not understand that people loved him. He just tightened his arms, wishing he could get his point across.

Grandpa Julius pulled Lovino over to the car, not wanting to let go of him. As they both got in, Julius called Julia to tell her that he had found Lovino and was on his way home. Julia had been a weepy mess, as expected, and Marcello had been forced to take the phone and finish the call for her. After Marcello had promised to contact the other searchers and inform them of Lovino's whereabouts, Julius hung up and turned to face his grandchild.

"What were you thinking, Lovino!? Do you know how much your mother has been panicking? You've been missing for hours! Where were you?"

"I got lost." Lovino said, quiet bluntly, but with no harshness to it, which was a pleasant change from the normal routine. Grandpa Julius glanced to the side, and was surprised by the expression on Lovino's face. Lovino's eyes were far off, and a small smile tugged at his lips. Julius had seen that face on others before, but never on Lovino. Frankly he had doubted that Lovino would ever let himself find someone worth making that face for. As much as Julius would have loved to find out more, Lovino was going to be interrogated enough when he got back home, and so for the moment Julius allowed him his thought.

Lovino was going to be in trouble when he got home. Of this his was aware. However, in his mind, it had been worth it. It had definitely been worth it.

Man, when Lovi falls in love he really falls hard.

Yep. I finally came back. I wish I could say there's a good reason that I haven't updated, but really, there's not. I was just lazy. And concerning my America/Vietnam story, I actually had the entire plot laid out, but then I realized I could just as easily make it an original story. So that one will take a bit longer to be updated, since I'm still deciding what I'm going to do with it. Sorry.

You know, I've heard people say that the story wrote itself, but I always thought that was kinda silly. But its true! This story just kind of happened. I didn't really have a plan for this at all. I was just bored.

I'm sorry about the unoriginal name for the mom, but it was the first thing that came to my mind. Julius Caeser had a daughter named Julia. So there.

As far as Romano and Liechtenstein's relationship goes, I have just one thing to say: That escalated rapidly.

Please review!