"Antonio…"

Head in his hand Antonio gazed across the cafeteria, completely preoccupied.

"Antonio?"

He blinked. This was really a mystery.

"Hey! Antonio!"

Snapping out of his thoughts Antonio looked around, "Huh? What?"

"Damn, Antonio! Pay attention while the awesome me is speaking!" Gilbert complained, taking an aggressive bite from his jell-o cup, "I was talking about the Gilbird!"

"Oh… uh, sorry Gilbert. I was just thinking."

"Oo, that's a first one for you," Francis crooned, his arm slipping across the Spanish student's shoulders, "And you were staring quite intently across our fair eatery. So what, or who, is the object of your attention?"

Antonio gestured with his thumb, "That guy sitting alone over there. Is he a new student? I don't remember seeing him before."

The other two looked in the direction their friend was pointing and glanced at each other.

"Dude, where have you been for the last eight years?" taking another bite, Gilbert leaned back in his chair, "That's Feliciano Vargas's brother."

"He has a brother?" Antonio asked, clearly confused.

"Mm-hm. Now bow down to my all powerful wisdom- OW! Francis, what the hell was that for?!"

"Because you are neither powerful nor wise, mon ami," the Frenchman replied, moving his arm back around Antonio's shoulder, "And I know more in this situation then you do."

Gilbert grumbled but didn't protest any further.

"The one sitting under the figurative 'dark cloud' over there is Lovino Vargas. He and his brother transferred to this school system about eight years ago when their grandfather, their sole guardian, got a job as the principle here in the high school."

"Really? How come I never noticed?"

Francis shook his head, "Because you never notice these things. Like just now Gilbert stole your jell-o cup."

"What?" he looked and sure enough there was Gilbert, munching away on the green gelatin. He grinned.

"You snooze you loose!"

Antonio shrugged, "You can have it. Well, what else?"

Sighing Francis leaned back, his hand slipping a bit down Antonio's uniform, "The only person he ever talks to is his brother. He has a violent tendency, swears as much as he speaks, and it's almost certain that he's bulimic."

"Bulimic?"

"You know," Gilbert elaborated, his mouth full of jell-o, "stick your fingers down your throat so you throw up? To loose weight and shit? At some point in the day almost every day, Lovino goes into the bathroom and upchucks."

Francis nodded in agreement, "But why the sudden interest, Antonio?"

"Oh, I don't know," he replied, looking over his shoulder at Lovino, "He seemed kind of lonely to me."

"Take my awesome advice: leave it," waving his spoon in the air the albino went on, "Why talk to Mr. Violent-Hermit over there when you have us?"

"Hmm… I guess your right."

"Of course I'm right! Now give me that jell-o Francis!"

"Will you just take it already? No one else at this table but you likes it."

"Yes!"

But even with Gilbert's assurance Antonio couldn't stop his eyes from following Lovino as he walked out of the cafeteria, a hand held up by his mouth and his bag swinging against his hip.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the week wore on Antonio noticed that Lovino was in most if not all of his classes. Not that the brunette ever noticed his watching. Whenever Antonio would steal a look at him he would be hunched over his desk, a pencil deftly moving across a piece of paper and his face consumed by concentration. But obviously what he was working on wasn't his studies, as Antonio soon discovered.

"Lovino Vargas to the front of the room, please."

Antonio's ears perked up as he looked away from his math problem and watched Lovino make his way to the teacher's desk. The teacher did not look pleased. Lovino did not look like he cared.

"Young man, you have missed the last fifteen homework assignments. Where are they?"

Lovino shrugged, "I don't have them."

"And why not?"

Silence. The teacher sighed, "Look," he said in a low voice, Antonio's ears straining to hear, "I know that there are circumstances at work here that allow you to slip a little but this is absolutely unacceptable."

Circumstances? Antonio thought, Oh, because his grandfather's the principal.

"And if you refuse to take your studies seriously I will assign one of your class mates to you as a tutor."

Lovino turned and walked back to his seat while the teacher shook his head and went on grading papers. Antonio looked back at his math problem, writing a 2 after the decimal point and wondering what Lovino had been doing for the entire class time.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day it was Antonio's turn to collect the homework. When he got to Lovino's desk he held out his hand expectantly. After the kind of talk yesterday he would have surely done his work. But the boy stared at him, eyes hostile and just daring him to ask for his homework paper. Antonio kept moving.

As he was sitting back down he noticed the teacher shuffling through the papers he had just handed in. A frown set on his face when he got to the last one. Adjusting his glasses he stood up, placing his hands on the desk, "Class, I need someone to help Mr. Vargas with his math work."

"You mean Feliciano?" some student inquired.

"No, I mean Lovino Vargas," he said, gesturing with his hand. The class fell silent, "Now who will volunteer?"

No one raised their hand. Antonio risked a look at Lovino and saw him rolling his eyes.

The teacher's frown deepened, "Come on, I know for a fact that we have some excellent students in this class, as well as students who could really use something to fill up their time. Now who want to volunteer?"

Still no one came forward, "What if I offered two extra credit points on the next test? … Four points?"

Antonio frowned as well. Could Lovino really be so bad? Did no one like him at all?

"Six points, and that's final. If no one will willingly do this I will assign one of you."

A mumble of discomfort swept through the room. There wasn't one person who wanted to be assigned to teach Lovino math.

"I'll do it."

A smile spread over the teacher's face, "Good! Thank you, Mr. Carriedo. And now to continue with yesterday's lesson…"

Bringing his hand down Antonio turned and waved at Lovino. Lovino flipped him off. Turning back to the front he twirled his pencil in preparation for soaking up the day's knowledge.

And the five people who came up to him at the end of class and thanked him weren't disconcerting at all.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ugh, please excuse the fail title. Its the name of the song that inspired me to write this although this is definitely NOT a song fic. If you want to look it up the artist is Dispatch.

So... tell me if you like it, okay? I'm working really hard on this one :3 and there will be regular updates!