Tomatita

Part 20

"That's cheating! You can't be a wizard and a pirate!"

"Can too!"

"No, you can't!"

"Can too!"

Antonio had decided a long time ago that he had the most—to borrow Gill's word—awesome friends ever. He figured that he could make this assertion since he'd seen lots of other people with friends, especially on the television, and none of them could even begin to compare with his friends.

Even if they could be very silly sometimes. Like now, as Gillian and Arthur were currently sitting next to each other on top of the monkey bars, arguing about whether Arthur was allowed to use magic when he was supposed to be a pirate.

Francis was currently resting with his head settled against his back, probably in an attempt to fall asleep. Antonio would have thought that he was already asleep if it weren't for the fact that he could feel fingers running through his hair, playing with his curls in a rather distracted fashion. Smoothing and twisting and sometimes scratching along his scalp in a way that actually felt really nice and relaxing.

And he saw Gillian jump up, immediately grabbing onto a nearby pole to keep herself from falling. Antonio felt his heart skip a panicked beat at that, but then it relaxed once she had steadied herself and exclaimed, "If you get to be a wizard-pirate, then I should be an awesome ninja-pirate!"

Arthur was scowling at the girl, crossing his arms over his chest as he shook his head violently. "No, you can't be a ninja-pirate!" And now he pointed over to the opposite side of the monkey-bars, where Antonio could see Kiku sitting next to a dozing-Heracles. Reading a book. Probably one of the backward comics that he liked so much. "The only one who can be a ninja-pirate is Kiku!"

Who immediately looked up at the sound of his name. His eyes flickering toward Arthur and Gillian before seeming to decide that he'd rather not get involved with whatever they were arguing about and instead returned to his book.

Antonio sighed happily and leaned his head slightly farther back so it was resting on top of Francis's. "Franny?"

"Mm?" He sounded like he was half-asleep. "Oui, Antoine?"

"Let's be best friends forever and ever, okay?"

And he could hear the soft chuckle in his friend's voice as he nodded his head slightly; Antonio could feel Francis's hair tickle against the nape of his neck, almost making him giggle. "Of course we will, Antoine."

"Stupid."

And Antonio was startled by the sudden exclamation from a very familiar, very irritated little voice coming from near his feet.

Lovina was currently standing in front of him, supported by the crutches that she'd recently learned how to use while she was in her cast. At first she'd hated them and refused to use them—until she'd realized that the wooden objects could serve as handy weapons when she was upset. Since then, she'd learned to live with the things.

And now Antonio noticed that she was dressed in probably the cutest, laciest, and pinkest dress that he'd ever seen. Which was surprisingly not covered in dirt yet. Meaning that she must have just arrived a few minutes ago.

"Hola, Lovi," he greeted her with a smile, immediately patting the seat next to him. "Why don't you come sit with Francis and me? Did your grandpa get you that pretty dress?"

She immediately scowled in response. Although she did hop forward and climb up to sit beside him, dropping her crutches carelessly into the dirt. "Stupid dress," she immediately complained, picking at the fabric in an irritated fashion.

Which was so cute! Antonio knew that she was starting to like her grandpa, little by little. At least partly because he kept buying her presents. And he'd given both her and Feliciana their own rooms—which he'd let them decorate however they wanted—in the house that he'd bought just a few streets away from the Beilschmidts. And both Lovi and Feli seemed so much happier now than they had before.

And it made him happy! Happy enough to reach right over and squeeze the little girl into a tight hug, ignoring her squeak of protest and immediate attempt to escape. "Aww~ you're so cute, Lovi~!"

"I'm going to put a curse on you if you don't quit it, Gillian Beilschmidt!"

And Antonio looked up again, toward where Gillian now seemed to be attempting to pry Arthur off of the monkey bars. She was tugging on his shirt and pulling backwards, while he clung to the bars and attempted to kick at her.

"You can't put a curse on awesome! I'll put a curse on you!"

"Let go~! I can put a curse on you!"

Kiku looked like he was considering a move from his seat. Although, since that would require him waking up Heracles, Antonio rather doubted that he'd actually do it.

And now Antonio's gaze moved from Heracles and Kiku and he suddenly sat upright, earning an irritated grunt from Francis in response. As his eyes rested on someone who was sitting on a swing across the park, kicking his feet back and forth barely hard enough to move at all... Sitting there completely alone...

And he felt his stomach twist nervously for a moment. His voice almost cracking as he leaned backwards slightly, "Hey, Franny?"

"Quoi?" Francis sounded more awake now. Probably since he'd suddenly been jerked from his nap when his headrest moved without warning.

"Look over there."

Antonio could feel Francis move his head slightly to look in the direction that he'd pointed. And then he sat up as well. "Sadiq? ...Where are his new amis?"

Antonio didn't respond, his usual smile slipping from his face as he stared at the other boy. Sadiq looked so sad. Sad and lonely. Maybe his other friends had gotten mad at him about the clubhouse and decided that he couldn't play with them anymore. Maybe now he was all alone.

And part of Antonio's mind immediately felt happy. Served him right. He'd been mean to Lovi. He deserved to be sad and not have friends. Lovi had gotten hurt because of him...

But, then...

Sadiq was just playing with the dirt now, pushing it into piles with his feet. Refusing to look up at anyone. And everyone else was ignoring him, not even noticing how sad and lonely he looked.

But, then...

Did he really deserve it? Sure, Sadiq was mean sometimes. But... being all alone...

And it wasn't a conscious decision. Or, at least, it didn't feel like a conscious decision to Antonio. As he was just suddenly on his feet, taking the first step toward the other boy.

And he was vaguely aware of questions coming from Francis and Lovina. But he didn't bother to answer. As he just took another step toward the figure sitting all alone. And then another. And another.

And he was now standing in front of the boy, who lifted his face. And Antonio saw an expression—a mixture of surprise and fear—cross over his face. Before it was replaced by sadness and he dipped his head down again.

"What do you want?"

"Why aren't you playing with your amigos, Sadiq?" Antonio hesitated for a moment before he decided to sit down on the swing beside the other boy, earning a surprised look in response.

"They—they got mad at me... They thought that I ruined the clubhouse... And they said that they didn't want to play with me anymore." He kicked his feet back a few more times. And Antonio felt his stomach twist slightly in guilt.

He hadn't wanted to make Sadiq this sad... He'd just wanted to make sure that he wasn't mean to Lovi ever again. And...

"I wanna play."

And both boys immediately looked up, startled by the exclamation coming from the space in front of them. Where a little girl on crutches was standing, glaring at them with a rather put-upon expression.

"Stupids! Play with me!" And now she stomped her good foot against the ground, flashing them her best annoyed glare. Which was very annoyed, as Lovina practiced often.

Although, it didn't have its desired effect, as all Antonio could do was stare back at her in surprise. 'Stupids'? Wait, did she mean both of them?

"You..." He hesitated for a moment. And then continued. "You want Sadiq and me to play with you, Lovi?"

She nodded, pointing back toward where Gillian and Arthur had stopped their argument and were now staring at them with rather confused expressions, her expression revealing that she thought his question was stupid as it should be completely obvious what she wanted. "Pirates!"

...And for another moment, Antonio wasn't sure how to respond. Lovi wasn't mad? But she was the one who'd gotten hurt... And she'd been the one who had been out in the woods. All alone. And scared and...

And he'd thought she'd be angry. And would hate him forever.

And...

And he suddenly smiled, jumping up and semi-tackling the little girl with a massive bear hug. Again, ignoring her protests in favour of smothering her with love as he laughed and snuggled against her. "Okay, Lovi. We'll play pirates with Arthur and Gill. You can even be the captain, okay?"

And she managed to squirm away, flashing him a glare before nodding in confirmation of her approval. And then she pointed toward Sadiq, who looked completely confused... As if he couldn't believe that she'd just said that he could play. "And I'll beat up your ship, meanie stupidface!"

"I—I can play? But..."

And Antonio didn't give him a chance to finish that statement, as he instead grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet. "Of course you can play! You said that you'd be nice, so now you can come play with us!" And he turned toward Lovina with a wide smile. "And Lovi can beat up your ship, right?"

Which was answered by one of her rare, almost Gill-like, mischievous smiles. "Sì!"

OWARI

A/N: And that is the end! Thank you guys so much for your support in this! Thanks super much to everyone who favourited, reviewed, or just read. You guys are amazing! I love you all :D

For our next story, we will be writing a series of one-shots in this universe. Some of them will be of these guys as kids, some of them will be of them when they're older... As we're going to be taking on the 100 theme challenge. Which I'm sure a lot of you have seen other writers do before...

Why? Because I really like to make things difficult for myself when it comes to writing.

If you guys have any specific requests for characters that you want to read more about, specific things you might like to see, just ask. I can't promise that I'll do everything, but I'll definitely consider them and try to do as much as I can.

And this story will probably be started after October 15th... And there's a reason for saying that date, which I'll tell you after the 15th.