One year. One entire year he had been coming here and he hadn't done anything. Francis would have had them in the first week if not less and Gilbert within the month. Then again he doubted they would have ever been interested enough in this particular person. He glanced across the tables piled with books to spot that one errant curl that gave him away.

Him. Lovino Romano Vargas, one of the afternoon clerks at Chikyuu Books. He also happened to be the one Antonio was in love with. Oh yes, after so long he could easily call it love. He went back to flipping through the pages of the book he was holding, trying to calm his blush. He could have gone to any bookstore, especially one closer to his house but he always came to this one after classes, just to see him.

He could still remember the day he first met him. He had been browsing looking for a book that his regular (and closer) store had been out of. He had been in the back when a ruckus up front had drawn his attention. Lovino had been arguing with a customer about a book before finally (with Ned's help) throwing him out. He had turned to Antonio and glared asking him what he was looking at before storming into the employee's room.

Antonio was left blushing and wondering why his heart was suddenly pounding. The boy hadn't been that scary, intimidating maybe, but not scary. Actually Antonio had thought he'd been rather cute with that angry flush on his face. Like the tomatoes he loved. During the next few weeks Antonio had continually been drawn to the bookstore, catching ever glimpse he could of the boy while being discreet as he could.

He had moved to the back now, ignoring the slight pout that wanted to work its way onto his cheeks at losing sight of the Italian. He was startled out of his thoughts by a cheery "Hey Antonio~". "Oh hello Bella, it's nice seeing you again." Bella was another one of the clerks and Ned's little sister. She was also one of the only ones who knew about his feelings for Lovino. She had sworn to help him get his man.

He had been happy but slightly confused about her mutterings after. Something about a fan, a camera, and two people called Elizabeta and Kiku. For the last month she had been pushing him to finally confess to Lovino but he never could. She always got the oddest look on her face to, like she knew something he didn't. "You really need to tell him soon or someone else will snatch him up" she began without warning.

Antonio felt his heart squeeze. The thought of losing him before he even had him was unbearable. However, he felt his blood run cold at her next line, "There's been this man around lately and I swear he's been checking Lovino out." No, he couldn't let him be taken by someone else but then that'd mean confessing and he just…he just couldn't. He was to shy no matter what rumors went around about him, Francis, and Gilbert.

He cringed again. Those two had found out two months ago and had been hounding him about his secret crush ever since. He refused to tell them though; he feared they'd take him first or scare him off. Gilbert could be quite forceful and Francis was…Francis. But if Lovino was being flirted with…argh! What was he going to do?

Lovino was grumbling as he sorted the books on the shelf. He was in a bad mood, which was usual but today he was particularly irritated. Feliciano hadn't woken him up after he slept through hi alarm and he'd almost been late to class. His teacher had scolded him and told him to be more like his brother who was an 'angel'. He snorted. On top of that he was pretty sure he'd seen the tomato bastard again.

He paused for a moment to determine the time. Yep, it'd been about a year since he'd started haunting the store. He remembered it well. He'd gotten into (another) fight with a customer and thrown them out only to turn and see this guy practically gaping at him. He snapped and stormed off but thought he'd never see him again. Most people who saw him like that didn't come back. But the tomato bastard had.

Honestly, who owned a tomato printed backpack, actually where and he even found one? …Dammit, he wanted one. He scowled again at the line of books. Ever since that day the tomato bastard had kept popping by again and again. Every time he came to Lovino to pay for his books he'd almost always stutter and he never looked him in the eye. If it had been anyone else Lovino would have gotten sick of it by now and ban him.

But he wasn't anyone else. The few times they managed to actually make small talk had been, nice. Of course he'd never tell anyone that. In the year since he had started coming he found he wasn't bad to talk to. They'd chatted about anything and everything usually until it was time to close the store. Then the bastard, Antonio, would go straight back to stuttering.

He been mortified one day, a Thursday, the day Antonio had always shown up, hadn't. He'd been on the edge of panicking until Bella had gotten a call to set aside a book for him to pick up. He'd fallen ill and wouldn't be able to get it for a while. What mortified him was the fact he'd wanted him to show up. After another border line panic attack, Bella had found him and forced him to tell her what was wrong.

She was his childhood friend and his co-worker so he'd told her. She'd squealed and said how proud she was that he was grown up and in love. He almost fainted, love? Who had she kidding? It wasn't like he cared or anything, or thought his glasses were cute or how nice his accent sounded. It had taken three more months before he finally admitted to himself that he maybe kinda had a small tiny crush on him.

It didn't matter though; it wasn't like he liked him back. He was probably scared of him and just trying to look like he wasn't. He pulled the last book out and set it in its place before stalking to the back of the store to get started on organizing the books there. After that he was taking a break. He passed by one of the smiley faces the owner had insisted on putting up and shivered.

He hated those things, especially since they reminded him of that weirdo who had been stalking the shelves of the store for the past few days. He swore the creep was leering at him when he wasn't goggling after Bella. He'd just gotten stared on the books when he heard someone clear their voice behind him. He jumped before spinning around, praying it wasn't the creep.

Luckily it wasn't. Instead it was Antonio, he couldn't quite manage a convincing scowl over his pounding heart. "What the hell bastard don't sneak up on me like that, are you trying to give me a heart attack!" Antonio smiled sheepishly and muttered a sorry, his eyes looking over his shoulder. When his heart was back to its normal tempo he finally gave a scowl. "Well what do you want that you had to go around like a ninja to ask me?" He watched slightly confused as he reddened and began stammering.

"Would you stop doing that and get to the point!" he barked. Antonio gave a small cringe before finally meeting his hazel eyes with his own bright green. He saw apprehension before a kind of resignation. He fumbled with something in his bag before thrusting a few loose leafs of paper at him and bolting. He was surprised for a moment before pulling the papers away from his chest and looking at them. He felt his breath catch in his throat.

They were sketches, sketches of him. Antonio had shown him his sketch book one day when they talked and he could admit the bastard was good. He was studying to be an illustrator and was proud of his work. He seen sketches of mythical creatures and buildings and people but none like this, the amount of work he must have put into these sketches was staggering. There were only three but each one was unique.

One was him yelling at a customer again and the emotion on his face caught him by surprise, he looked like that? The next was him sorting books again a look of concentration and thoughtfulness in his every line. The last made him feel weak in the knees. It was him at the café near the store on his break. A cup of coffee held near his lips and a book in one hand being flipped through. He looked utterly content.

Each sketch also had a quote at the bottom; he thought he recognized them from a poem book Antonio had bought one day, he'd recommended it actually. His face flamed and his mouth went dry as he read each one. He lifted his head to where Antonio had run out of the store, was…was he trying to say what he thought he was saying? He clutched the sketches to his chest before he shook himself out of his shock.

He quickly looked around before folding them and stuffing them in his pants pocket. Friend or not he did not want Bella seeing them. He turned back to the books and began absent mindedly sorting them. He would think about this and what it could mean when he got home and locked himself in his room away from his prying brother and then he and the bastard would have words. And maybe then he'd invite him to go to the café on break with him after.