Hetalia - Axis Powers 1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello everyone! Before the fic starts, let me warn you about a few things so that the people who dislike them can leave. First of all this fic involves Fem!Romano (And Fem!Italy). Second, this fanfiction will also contain some smut and it will involve a relationship between a teenager and an adult. Those who dislike the things mentioned above, I recommend you to leave. Rest of you, please read and review!

**Chapter 1**

"Dammit, where the hell am I?" Lovina Vargas cursed. She was supposed to start her work in Carriedos' mansion today and now she was lost. God dammit, why did their garden have to be such a maze? She had entered the gates that lead to Carriedos' land around half an hour ago and since she had had time back then, she had decided to take a quick tour around the yard – it had been a very bad decision. "Perfect, it's my first day and I'm going to be late, what a fucking great first impression I'm going to give them."

Lovina continued circling around the courtyard, trying to focus and remember what she had seen in which order so that she could figure out which way to go, but there were so many similar flowerbeds, trees and bushes that it was impossible for her to figure out anything. Fuck, where were the gardeners, or anyone else who could tell her how to get to the damn estate? Dammit, not only was she lost but she was starting to get hungry as well! A horrific scene popped in her mind; what if she didn't find her way back until it was too late? What if everyone was on vacation and when they'd get back at work they'd find her laying on the ground, starved to death. The horrific image in her head made Lovina shiver, she did not want to die, and she was too young to die!

As Lovina was about to give up she heard a silent whistling somewhere nearby. She tried not to even breathe so that she could locate the direction of the sound. It was silent again and Lovina couldn't help but to wonder if she had only imagined the voice. No, it was there! She heard the sound again and concluded that the voice came somewhere behind her. She sighed from relief and tried to keep the exact direction in her mind, because a couple of times her had to continue the road a little further than she was supposed to, because there was no turns in the correct spots. In addition, she had neither courage nor nerve smash her way through the obstacles, and she really didn't want to harm the plants – not even though she did blame those bastards for her current misery.

It took around five minutes to get so close that she was able to hear the whistling loudly. She took a deep breath; she didn't know if the person behind the shrub row was a servant or someone important, and she couldn't be even sure if the person whistling was a man or woman, but if she had to take a guess, she would put her money on male. Lovina couldn't help but to be nervous, she had run around so much that she was all sweaty and due to her managing to fell a couple of times, her dress was all dirty and her knees were on bruises. She tried to wipe dirt away as much as possible, before she would show her face to whoever was the person on the other side.

"Hey you bast… I mean, excuse me!" Lovina raised here voice and tried not to sound too rude (she failed miserably), and her voice seemed to get the attention of the man who was watering the tomatoes. Lovina couldn't help but to blush as she saw the man's face. He seemed to be very young, around his early twenties. He had dark hair, tanned skin and amazingly gorgeous green eyes. He was wearing a white shirt (it was rather dirty), that was left opened revealing some of man's muscular stomach, and his loosen pants were black. The man was wearing no shoes at all and he smiled warmly as he saw the young female staring at him. Were the servants allowed to dress as they wished or was this guy breaking rules? Lovina didn't know and she couldn't care any less.

"¡Hola!" man saluted with a bright smile, and Lovina could feel her heart skip a few beats. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Umm… I'm new here, and I think I got lost", she confessed although it made her feel very embarrassed. She was half expecting the man to mock her sense of direction, but the man only nodded and her words seemed to awaken the man's interest.

"I see, that explains why you don't look familiar. Well, where do you need to go?"

"To the mansion", Lovina replied.

"Oh! Well, all you need to do is to follow this road", the man spoke and pointed a narrow path next to the tomato fields.

"Ah, thank you very much you idio- I-i mean, t-thank you", Lovina stuttered, embarrassed, and started to run towards the mansion. She knew that she was late, but how much. She didn't know, but it didn't matter really, because the situation was fucked up no matter what. Now she only had to hope that her punishment was something else than getting fired.

_A/N: Hopefully you liked it. This first chapter was short but the upcoming ones will be much longer. Also FYI Lovina is fifteen in the beginning of this fic.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I'm back! It was supposed to take less time for me to post but I was a bit stuck with my main project so it delayed me a bit. Also, you have no idea how happy I'm because of the amount of comments I've received; this has to be most comments per chapter I've ever gotten. Thank you so much 3**

**I am not completely satisfied with the chapter, it might be a bit slow at times, but oh well, the true excitement starts in the next part. Please Read and Review.**

**Edit: Fuuuuu, I had forgotten this deletes all the star markings… fixed it now *_***

XOXOXOXO

Awkward, unpleasant, scary, embarrassing… if Lovina had to describe her current situation with adjectives those had been first ones she would have chosen. She had just finished explaining why she had been late, adding "I'm sorry" to every fucking sentence. So there she was, standing in front of her employers, shaking while staring a beautiful pair of dark eyes that studied her with curiosity. Those eyes belonged to the landlady who, for Lovina's surprise, didn't seem to mad at all – at least she was smiling very brightly. However, even if the woman seemed to be fine with her late arrival, her husband seemed to think otherwise. He glared the teen, detesting her messy appearance.

"So, you say you got lost and that's why you are late?" The man asked, obviously thinking that Lovina was lying. His voice was full of pride and when he spoke, his words were full of venom. Lovina was sure that if she wasn't kicked out, she would not get along with Mr. Carriedo too well.

"Darling, don't be so mean to her!" woman scolded and placed her hands on Lovina's shoulders. That stunning smile never left her face. "I believe your words, Lovina, and I'm not blaming you for anything. You are not the first one to get lost", she assured before grabbing the teens hand and starting to lead her indoors.

"You mean I'm not fired?"

"Of course you aren't, don't be silly. Everyone makes mistakes", woman giggled. "I am glad you are okay. I was very worried when the gatekeeper told me that he found your luggage from the main gate but there were no signs of your whereabouts. That silly old man… to think he went to take a pee when I specifically told him to wait you at the gates", she continued with apologizing tone, which Lovina found amusing since the lady really had no reason to be sorry.

"N-no, it was my fault. I got distracted and didn't think wisely. I'm sorry Mrs. Car…"

"No need to be so formal, Lovina. Just call me Candice."

"Yes ma'am, I mean… yes, Candice." Lovina struggled with her words, blushing a little, which was something Candice seemed to find very adorable. Woman pinched Lovina's cheek and the younger one could have sworn she heard her mutter something like "how cute". It didn't make Lovina feel any less embarrassed.

"Hmh, it looks like you need a bath", she observed and Lovina could not have agreed more. She really needed to change her clothes and get rid of all that dirt she'd managed to gather during her 'adventure' in the garden.

"Well then", Candice spoke after seeing that the Italian had approved her suggestion. Let's get you cleaned first, then we'll have dinner together and I'll show you around so that you don't get lost anymore…"

XOXOXO

Lovina had exchanged no words with the lady while they made their way to the bathroom in the second floor. One thing, or actually multiple, but one specific thing had bothered Lovina during the entire walk – it was woman's smile; it seemed oddly familiar, like something she had seen just a while ago. It was probably nothing important but it still distracted her.

"Here's a towel for you", Candice chirped, getting Lovina's attention, and shoved a bright pink towel to Lovina's hands. "Take your time, there is no need to hurry", she assured and opened the door for her. The bathroom was huge, at least twice as big as Lovina's own room back at home.

She stepped in and heard the door close behind her. For a moment she wondered if she should have gone after Mrs. Carriedo since there was no clean outfit for her to use after bath, but her legs were sore from all the walking and all the filth sickened her just enough to make her abandon the idea. Well damn it, she would worry about it later.

Lovina put her towel to a stand next to the shower and then walked to investigate the rack that held the detergents. She explored enthusiastically the long line of different shampoos and bath oils that fully filled a metal made shelf behind the bathtub. She picked one bottle at a time and took a quick look of their labels to figure out which ones would fit for her hair type the best. All the options made her dizzy – back at home she was able to use only cheap and weakly working products, since she and her little sister couldn't afford to use their money on proper hair products, heck, they barely had enough money to buy their food.

As much as Lovina would have loved to take a decent bath, she knew that if she entered the tub it would be mission impossible for her to be ready on time. Candice may have say that there is no need to hurry, but Lovina had already messed up with timing and she didn't want to make the same mistake twice – she would be just fine with a shower. She grabbed a few bottles and put them on top of the nearest ledge before she started to remove her clothes. She threw them on the floor, not caring that they were now lying in the middle of the cold floor. The teen turned on the shower and chose a proper water temperature before entering the shower. The warm water felt divine against Italian's sweaty skin and tangled hair, and it made her feel a bit more relaxed. She had had almost unbearable day but finally she didn't have to worry about a thing – or that's what she thought until the door was slammed open.

By instinct, Lovina grabbed the closest cloth she could find (which was a red Turkish towel) and placed it so that it would cover as much of her bare body as possible. She cursed silently that she hadn't lock the door – there had been a chance that Candice would come back to bring her something she could put on, but at least the Italian had expected people to knock before entering. Lovina glared the arrival who seemed to be a rather old lady, about sixty years old. What really caught the young Italians attention was her outfit – it was a light blue, bland and simple and it was easy for Lovina to figure out that the woman was a servant. She had an apologizing smile on her round face and she was holding a pile of clothes. Lovina's anger towards the woman eased a bit.

"Ah I'm sorry to burst in like this, but I needed to bring these to you", she spoke and placed the load in her arms at the top of a dryer.

Out of the curiosity, Lovina turned off the shower and paced to look more closely the clothes the woman had brought to her, but it wasn't easy when her other hand was occupied to keep the towel around her. Lovina could have sworn she felt the lady to chuckle at her shyness (they were both women, being naked in front of her should not have felt THAT awkward), but she tried to ignore it and focus on the dress the lady had brought to her. It was very similar to the one that the older woman was wearing, a maid's outfit. The biggest difference besides the size of it was the color – the dress was green and the accessories were mostly white.

"I'm not sure if it's your size, but you are rather tiny so I picked the smallest one."

"Umm…" Lovina started after placing the clothes carefully to a shelf. The woman was still standing there and it seemed that she was planning to wait until the teen tried her new clothes. Lovina blushed slightly as she asked the woman to leave. "I-I still need to wash my hair. So if it's not too much trouble, could you wait outside?"

"Of course, it's no trouble at all", she assured with a sweet smile. "Until now I was cleaning the room right next to us. I didn't manage to finish the job yet, so when you're done here, come to the room on the right, I should be there. And if I'm not, then check the following one or two rooms, those are the three ones I still need to clean before the dinner."

Lovina responded with a nod, showing the woman that she understood. She watched as the woman left and shut the door behind her – Lovina felt immediately a lot less sheepish. She marched back to the shower, but before opening the spray she placed the red towel to the exact place where she had taken it. Only then, an awful feeling conquered her mind – what if someone had used the towel before her? It would be terrifying if it belonged to a man. It would be like having an indirect body contact with a male, and that would be something that could possibly traumatize her mind forever; at least for a long time. Well, at least it most likely didn't belong to Mr. Carriedo, that bastard probably had his own private bathroom so that he needn't to bath in the same room with ordinary and unimportant people. That though was a small relief for the young Italian…

XOXOXO

Lovino didn't move an inch, barely breathe as the maid examined her appearance. She seemed to be pleased how the dress fit her. It was a little too big from the sides, but other than that, it was perfectly fine. The woman seemed to approve the outfit as she only blabbered how pretty she looked in it. Lovina would have loved to disagree with her, but she had to admit that the outfit was quite nice for a maid's outfit.

"So, now that we're ready, let me show your room. You cannot go to the dinner with your working clothes on, so you need to change again", the woman said and started to lead the Italian towards the end of the corridor.

Lovina's room was the last one on the left. The Italian was very glad that she seemed to have no "neighbors" as the only room next to hers seemed to be a laundry room. They opened the door and Lovina couldn't help but to be, once again, impressed by the size of it. There was a massive bed, so big that two persons would have easily fit to sleep in it, maybe even three. There were several shelves and a phone rested on a wooden nightstand as well as a small desk lamp. There were also multiple wardrobes and there was two huge windows in the room, both of them giving an outstanding view to the garden that seemed to be endless. No wonder she got lost. Lovina also noticed that her luggage was lying next to the bed. She sat on her bed and lifted the luggage right next to her.

"I must go now, I need to finish my work for today", Lovina heard the low female voice behind her. "The dinner will be held within half an hour. The dining room is in the first floor – it should be easy to find since it's near the front door, but just in case you can't find it, don't hesitate to ask directions. There are several people here and I'm sure that all of them would love to help you out."

"Thank you for your help", the Italian thanked as the older woman left the room in a hurry. Lovina couldn't help but to feel a bit guilty. After all, it was her fault that the maid's schedule was messed up. "Hopefully she makes it in time. She seems like a nice old lady", teen mused to herself before she started to unpack her belongings. She threw her clothes to one pile and rest of the items ended up in the other stack.

Lovina couldn't help but to growl in frustration as she studied her clothes. She didn't know exactly how tidily she was supposed to dress up, but what she did know was the fact that she hated her clothes, either they were really old or looked very cheap – as they mostly were. The Italian sighed as she abandoned another piece. She would definitely have to buy decent clothes when she'd get her first paycheck. ..

XOXOXO

Just like the maid had said, finding the dining room was easy. All Lovina had to do was to settle to the downstairs and walk the hallway to the direction she had first come with Candice. Also, there were a few other persons heading for the dinner too, so she simply followed them. It was all a piece of cake. Only thing she felt unsure was her dress. It used to belong to her mother, which meant it was almost twenty years old. Lovina also disliked its bright pink color and the incredibly hideous lace decorations on the hem, but it was only one that didn't look completely down-market compared to what others were wearing.

The Italian teen stepped into the dining room, avoiding people's gazes. She has never been the type who wanted everyone's attention. No, she wasn't an attention whore like her little sister who couldn't tolerate loneliness longer than fifteen minutes. She loved spending time alone, or not necessarily love, but preferred it to spending time with bimbo's who did nothing but talked about guys and spent hours in front of the mirror. It was the same with the boys - they were always bullying her – usually talked badly about her behind her back, because everyone back home knew that being mean to the young Italian directly usually lead to a broken nose.

The Italian noticed that there were nametags in the table, to show everyone where to sit. Lovina found her place quickly, since most seats were already taken anyway, and it was easy to figure out that the seats on both ends of the table were reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Carriedo. She was a bit disappointed to see that the maid she had gotten in good terms with was sitting in a middle of a crowd, far from her. Young Italian positioned herself on the edge, next to a middle-aged man who greeted the young Italian politely. Lovina answered him with a small and forced smile, but she was a far more interested about the delicious scents floating in the air. Just with a few sniffs, she was able to recognize multiple different spices as well as the scent she nearly worshipped – the aroma of hot pasta sauce made of fresh tomatoes. Only now, Lovina remembered how hungry she really was.

"Is everyone here already?" Lovina turned her head just enough to see Candice arrive to the room, her husband following her with a grumpy look on his face. Did the guy even know how to smile? Not that Lovina was anyone to judge; after all, she didn't smile that often either.

"Looks like Toni is still missing", man answered to his wife, frustrated but bearing it, like he had been through this same thing many times before.

"He'll come when he comes", Candice noted when seating herself to the same end of the table where Lovina was sitting.

"That boy is never on time", Mr. Carriedo grunted as he did as his wife, sat down on his chair. He tapped his watch while staring at it with intense. Counting the seconds to the moment the food was served.

It took about thirty seconds before a handful of chefs burst out from the kitchen, carrying huge amount of different types of food. Lovina stared the colorful and expensive looking serving dishes with craving. She wanted to get her hands on the food really badly, but she didn't have the courage to do so before others would start. Unfortunately, it didn't happen even when the kitchen staff had left, since a loud and energetic "¡Hola!" got everyone's, even Lovina's attention.

Lovina could have sworn that her heard skipped a few beats when he saw the arrival. A young, tanned man around his early twenties with stunning green eyes and the warmest yet also most dense smile she had ever seen. His hair were a bit wet, like he had just gotten from shower, a red – oh god! bright red towel resting on his bare shoulders, only wearing a pair of black white sweat pants. Lovina suddenly got an extremely bad feeling about everything, and Mr. Carriedo proved her greatest fears true.

"Antonio mi hijo, what took you so long?"

Lovina had never been an expert when it came studying foreign languages (not that she was good at any other subjects either.), but she had learnt just enough Spanish to understand what had just been said.

"He's their son?" the Italian teen cried in her mind, suddenly hoping that she could be anywhere else right now…


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: It's time for the next chapter! Thank you again for everyone who commented, and to rest of you readers as well. As someone pointed out in the comments, there was and probably will be errors with grammar, and I'm not even going to rant about how English is not my native tongue, because I've studied English ten years and I should know these things. Oh well, I do my best to white as correct English as I can, and I guess that as long as people understand what I write, little mistakes won't be that awful no? **

**Read &Review please, it would make me happy! **

**XOXOXOXO**

Chapter 3

Okay, it seemed like someone up there really didn't like the Italian teenager, because if he did he wouldn't put her through all this shit did he? She had been late at work on her first day, Mr. Carriedo seemed to hate her for no reason (okay, she'd been late, but no one is perfect!) and she had made herself look like a complete fool in front of her host couple's son, who technically was her boss as well. And things only got lot worse when Lovina got a better glimpse of the Spaniards towel. It was same size and shade of red as the one the Italian had used only about an hour ago to cover her body from the intruding maid. Oh fuck, someone optimistic enough would have convinced herself that it could have been just from the same set, but Lovina knew her luck. She started to wonder if there was anything on the table that could be used to commit a quick and painless suicide.

"HI!" Spaniard greeted the Italian with enthusiasm as he noticed her, remembering her from earlier. He shot her a warm, gentle smile that could have melted an entire glacier within a minute. No wonder Candice's smile had seemed so familiar; it was almost identical to her son's one. It took almost a minute before the Italian teen managed to mumble silent and bashful "hi" to Antonio. Despite her respond being slow, it seemed to brighten the Spaniards already joyful mood.

Mr. Carriedo didn't seem impressed when his son took his place without any intentions to apologize of being late, and he made it very clear with his ranting that he disapproved the way his Antonio had dressed up for the dinner. He thought it was very inappropriate to dine shirtless, and Lovina couldn't help but to agree with Mr. Carriedo on this one, but for a different reason – because the bastard sat opposite her, his amazing pecs showing directly at her. Fuck, they were like magnets pulling the young Italians eyes towards them. He was definitely ripped – not that he had gigantic muscles, but they were well defined, which was something Lovina liked a lot more than over trained bodies (she found them rather disgusting). It distracted her, but she would never admit it.

Unlike most girls of her age, Lovina had never been that interested about the opposite sex. She didn't drool over the good-looking/cute men/boys on the covers of the magazines. She had never had posters of handsome actors or musicians on the walls of her room (her sister's posters didn't count!). She had never gone on a date with anyone, she still hadn't had her first kiss nor had she never had a crush on anyone. Lovina couldn't help but to wonder why this bastard had an effect like this to her.

"Lovi, aren't you hungry?"

Italian woke from her trance and turned her gaze towards Candice who seemed worried, which made her forget the fact that the woman had just used the nickname that Lovina allowed to be used ONLY by her little sister. Only now, Lovina noticed that people had started to eat already.

"I-I am. I was just thinking about things", Italian responded, hoping that no one had noticed her staring Antonio far longer than was natural. Luckily, it seemed like no one had, so the teen started to investigate the dishes more closely. Everything looked delicious, but the amount of settings in front of her confused her. There were multiple plates and cutleries, and truth to be told – she didn't have even the slightest clue of which to use with which, except for the deepest plate and the big spoon. They would be for the soup.

She started to search soup bowls with her eyes, finding a few, but excluding one they all were out of her reach. She didn't want to disturb the others (or she simply had no courage to ask the man next to her hand over the bowl for her) so she reached the bowl near her, hoping it had something she'd like in it. She poured few scoopfuls of soup on her plate, admiring its reddish color. Was it tomato soup? She spooned up some into her mouth and it did have tomato-filled flavor in it, but it included different kinds of vegetables too. Its texture was thick yet soft, wonderfully luscious. The temperatures were perfect, extremely warm but not hot enough to burn one's mouth.

Lovina decided to eat slowly so that the others would have already moved on the main courses when she was still enjoying her starter. That way she could observe what others would do so that she knew which fork and knife to use and when. Damn it, she loved food and almost everything related to it but she hated all these fucking stupid eating etiquettes. Dining time was supposed to be the time of the day when all family members gathered to eat and have fun together. Lovina, like every self-respecting Italian, knew it.

She missed the days their whole family, even the distant cousins living in the same city or nearby areas, all gathered under the same roof to eat together almost every weekend. Those days were long gone though, since many of them had moved away years ago and about as many of the remaining ones were now resting six feet under the ground. Oh, and certain someone had spent the last five years a bottle in his hand, trying to get himself to an early grave. Fuck, Lovina started to feel sick when thinking all those things. Thinking of dead bodies and his grandfather's severe alcohol problem almost took away her appetite.

The Italian shook it off, trying her best to push unwelcome memories from her mind. She noticed that she had unconsciously finished the soup on her plate, which made her to look quickly to her right where the man was stabbing the salad on his plate with a fork. So, the narrow one was for the salad. The teen decided to make a safe choice with the salad – the basic green one tasted always good if only the ingredients were fresh and high quality.

"So, Lovina", Mr. Carriedo suddenly spoke, getting Italians attention and awaking the entire table's interest, as if only now they all noticed the newcomer. "How is it that a girl of your age has decided to choose a career like this?"

Lovina finished chewing the lettuce in her mouth quickly and swallowed. She took a quick look to the other end of the table before giving her answer. "If I had a choice I continued my studies, but we only had the money to fund the education of one of us."

"One of you? You have siblings?" Candice asked with enthusiasm, like having a sibling or siblings was a rare and incredible thing, but Lovina had already concluded that she found everything so fucking adorable and nice that it made no sense at all.

"Yes, I have a little sister, Feliciana. She's twelve, but I think her mental age is somewhere near five." She almost chuckled at her own words.

"Still, I think it's quite harsh that your parents make you work", Mr. Carriedo grunted, and Lovina almost detected pity from his voice. Almost. "I'd understand if it was a family business, but to send a young girl from a big lively city to countryside with over 20kilometers distance is quite brutal. It's almost like your parents don't care if you're gone."

Lovina almost dropped her fork because of a sudden burst of anger and sorrow conquered her mind and body. She wasn't sure if he was suggesting that her parents hated her or that her parents were simply irresponsible but it pissed her off anyway. If the speaker had been anyone else (except Candice, she doubt if she could ever yell to her) she would have already either stormed out of the room or started to shout at them. She, however, was already in such a bad terms with mister Carriedo that she dared not to raise her voice. She would definitely be fired after that and it was something she couldn't afford.

"I- they had no choice", Lovina managed to say silently while fighting the tears. She would not start to cry. Not in front of a bunch of people she barely knew. Not even if they were talking about a topic that was one of the most painful and hard ones for the teenager. "They… they just aren't physically capable to work right now, but someone must earn some money for us to live so..."

"Why, are they sick?" Antonio and Candice asked in unison, not smiling for the first time Lovina had seen them.

"Well…" Lovina started, not really wanting to answer the question. She had been in this house only for some hours and the people were already asking questions that tended to make the Italian flip or cry. "…my mom's been in hospital for some time now and-"

The Italian never managed to finish her sentence, which was probably a good thing, since the topic was sensitive for her. And for the Italians great surprise the one to interrupt her and turn the conversation elsewhere was Mr. Carriedo. With a quick glance Lovina was able to detect that he seemed to regret ever starting the topic – he seemed to be much better at reading atmosphere than his wife or son.

The next topics had nothing to do with her, so she was allowed to eat in peace. She wasn't that hungry though, so she decided to have just something light and right at that moment she spotted a basket full of her favorite fruits; a basket full of juicy, plump, fresh tomatoes. And in that basket she saw the most perfect tomato she had ever seen. She reached for it, but when her hand landed to the red fruit she desired, her hand felt something else towards it. A hand, a hand that was definitely bigger than hers and more masculine. That hand belonged to Antonio.

"Oh", Antonio removed his hand and stared the embarrassed Italian who had made the same gesture. The Spaniard was half-expecting the Italian to grab the tomato now that he had backed up, but instead of taking the one she had wanted at first she quickly grabbed two smaller ones and started to munch them, making sure she had no eye contact to the Spaniard. She finished them with a few bites and after she was done she jumped up quickly and loudly enough to get Candice's attention.

"I- I promised to call my sister as soon as possible. Is it okay for me to leave?" Lovina had promised to call Feliciana but she wanted to get far from Antonio (why, because he bothered her). She received an approving nod from Mrs. Carriedo and as soon as she had received it she run off, wondering why Antonio has such an influence to her.

XOXOXO

Lovina hurried to her room and picked up the phone as fast as she could. She couldn't help but to feel a bit guilty that she had forgotten to call Feliciana sooner. After all, she was her only living relative who wasn't completely out of her mind. She dialed the number, which she wanted to call and waited. For a moment she thought no one would answer, but when the Italian was about to disconnect the call she heard how the phone was picked up. A warm, enthusiastic and loud voice introduced herself with such an happy and childish way that it almost made Lovina puke. Well, at least Feli wasn't crying her eyes out because she thought that Lovina hated her just because she didn't call sooner. Stupid idiot had probably forgotten that she even had promised to call at all.

"Why the hell did it take so long to answer, dammit?" Lovina growled, knowing very well that her tone would most likely upset her sister, as it did. Lovina rolled her eyes while listening how Feliciana kept repeating "I'm sorry" with such a fast pace that Lovina lost the count. She stopped only after Lovina had told her to shut up.

"I-I'm sorry sorella!" The younger Italian apologized as she firmed her grip from the phone. "I was making pasta and I didn't want it to burn." Of course. Pasta. To Feliciano it was all about the pasta.

"I'm not mad at you stupido", Lovina sighed as she sat down to his bed. "You just whined the whole morning for me to call you when I get here. I forgot so I thought you'd be sad but it seems that you thing food is more important than me."

Feliciano only chuckled to her sisters words. Lovina was always saying harsh things at her and someone who didn't know them would have thought that the elder Italian always bullied her little sister. But they were both used to it. And Feliciana was well aware how hard it was for her sister to show her feelings to other people. It was hard for Lovina even to admit these feelings for herself.

"So, you like it there~?" Feliciana asked, smiling. She wanted to hear more about Lovina's new employers and hoped that they were nice people. She was a bit sad that Lovina had to move so far from her but she knew it was important for both of them.

"Hmm, the lady of the house is very nice. She's very understanding, gentle and beautiful", Lovina told. She considered bringing up some of her flaws like how she was a bit slow and forgot things more often than average person, but she decided not to. Instead she started to tell Feliciana about the remaining two Carriedos, starting by pointing out what a douchebag Mr. Carriedo was and how he had no sense of humor. Feliciana didn't find his sister's words surprising – she had always gotten along better with women, especially if they were older. Lovina usually didn't get along with people her age.

Lovina also mentioned Antonio, but didn't say much about him because for some reason Lovina found it hard to say anything about the youngest Carriedo. She could have whined how he was inconsiderate (he did 'stole' her juicy tomato after all) and how stupid he was – well, she did tell Feliciana that he had probably even lower IQ than what Feliciana had, but she seemed to take it as a compliment for her, not an insult towards Antonio, since she started to celebrate how she was smarter than the twenty-year-old Spaniard. Sometimes it was hard for Lovina to believe that she and Feliciana were related.

They were, by nature, like the exact opposites of each other. Lovina was hotheaded and short tempered and didn't like showing her feelings and weaknesses to others, while Feliciana was always incredibly cheerful, chatty and showed openly whether she was happy or sad. Also, she positively had one of the shortest attention spans in the world. Their only similarities were on their looks and actually, if it wasn't for their height difference and the fact that Lovina had already gained curves and a rather fine pair of breasts (that's what the boys in their neighborhood said, Lovina, of course, disagreed), they could have gone as a twins.

"Is nonno home?" Lovina asked. Not only she had promised to call for her sister, but her grandpa had also demanded her to inform when she gets there. Just to be sure that the 'fine' people didn't treat her granddaughter badly.

Feliciana hesitated for a moment, like something was bothering her. Lovina didn't like it when she was like that – it usually meant something was wrong. "Umm… he went to the hospital." The younger Italian's answer was nervous.

As much as Lovina hoped he'd gone to the hospital to check his own health (which Lovina knew was quite bad), she already knew he had gone there for a whole different reason. Lovina bit her lip and dug her nails to her mattress, trying to control her emotions. "He went to see mom?"

"Y-yes", Feliciana admitted, sobbing. "H-he read some things from some medical magazine and wanted t-to suggest them to doctors."

Lovina stomped the floor beneath her feet furiously and swung her hand so that it made her luggage to fall from the bed. "Feli… why didn't you stop him?" Lovina almost shriek, making the younger Italian shove the phone further from her ear. Lovina's eyes were getting damp but she didn't allow herself to shed any tears. "When does he understand that he can do nothing? He can pray and use any tricks that he wants but mom is not waking up!" Lovina yelled, unloading her frustration. Her words made Feliciana to cry but she ignored it. "She's been in coma for over five years; I think it's time to give up the hope. Things won't get any better, Feliciana!"

Lovina didn't exactly like to be the party pooper, but she had to think rationally since it seemed she was the only one capable of doing so. It was clear that the longer you were in come the less likely it was for you to ever recover. She waited patiently her sister to stop crying, because yelling and demanding her to stop would only make things worse. Only waterproof way to make her stop would be a kiss and a hug – unfortunately it was impossible to give those via phone line.

"I- I know", Feliciana squeaked as she managed to calm herself down. "It's just… papa is gone and mama, too, plus grandpa is never home." Lovina noticed easily that the further Feliciana's sentence went the more arcane her words were. The elder Italian feared that she might start to cry again. "A-and now you're gone, too, and I'm all alone."

Lovina couldn't help but to compassion towards Feliciana. She knew how hard it had been for the two of them to live (practically) together and for now on it would be even harder for Feliciana. "I- I understand it feels bad but I promise I call you every single day, and come to visit as often as I can", Lovina assured, hoping it would brighten her sister's mood a bit.

"C-can you get back when it's our birthday?" Feliciana asked hopefully. Lovina wasn't sure if she could arrange it since it would be in the middle of a week when she was supposed to work, but maybe (if she worked really hard the next couple weeks) she could get things arranged.

"Don't worry, Feli. You know how much I hate birthdays, and you know even better how much I hate spending my birthdays alone." Lovina heard Feliciana celebrate on the other side of the line but the elder Italian wasn't as enthusiastic. She knew it could be a hard task to arrange things to work as wanted, but one thing was sure – she would spent her birthday with Feliciana. At any cost…


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: It's time for the next chapter, but before that I want to thank all the readers, your love towards my fic makes me happy! Also, from now on I'll give separated thanks/answers to everyone who has reviewed, because I've been asked many questions, and because I'm used to it. **

**Valkyrie99: Thank you for your comment. Active readers/reviewers like you give me the needed energy boost and motivation to update fast.**

**inogurl: Great thanks for you too, I'm happy if the latest chapter touched you. I personally love emotional fics and I'm glad that I've captured the mood correctly. **

**Rhee-chan: You love my writing? Thank you for your kind words. And yes, Antonio is going to be a dense idiot. We all love him the way he is, no? **

**the killer imperfectionist: Yay! Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you like my fic. Actually, I'm aware that Candice is more of a Greek name, but she's a very old OC of mine from another series and there is a reason for her not having Spanish name albeit she's Spanish. I'll write more about her background in the future, some of it even in this chapter.  
>-<strong>

**Also, I want to thank WeAllFlyHigh, Red eyes black phoenix, Unknown Variable, Crazy4animeCouples, Scarlet daydreamer, lai-shai, Alisboa, Ichigo-the-Deathberry and pg for commenting on the previous chapters, as well as those fabulous people who have favorited/ who follow this fic actively. Hopefully you all will stick with me to the very end ~3~ **

**I think this chapter came out quite well, some back story for the Carriedos. I never meant this chapter to be this dark but I didn't know where to stop so it came quite angst-filled. And I'm sorry that the current chapters have been very Antonio-less, but from the next chapter on his role are going to be much bigger. Please, read and review!**

**XOXOXOXO**

Chapter 4.

Lovina spent another 30-or-so minutes on the phone before she managed to end the call. As much as she loved to chat with her sister, Feliciana was a very talkative person and had a bad habit to go on and on of all kinds of things and cutting her off had to be one of the hardest things in the entire world. Luckily Candice had come to pick her up which had given Lovina a proper reason to stop the conversation (more like her sister's endless gibbering). It was definitely a good thing since she doubted that the Carriedos wouldn't be pleased if she caused them massive phone bills.

Lovina removed her dress quickly, because at long range it would be uncomfortable to wear, and replaced it with a blue medium-scale skirt and a similar shaded t-shirt. Then, after she was done, she hurried out of her room to Candice who was waiting for her patiently.

"I see you're done. It's getting a bit late, so I assume it is okay for you if I only show you the indoors and leave the rest for tomorrow?"

"Yeah, that'd be good", Italian agreed.

"Good, come on then."

XOXOXO

They started their tour from the second floor. Most of the rooms were bedrooms that were occupied by the workers. Lovina heard Candice tell which room belongs to who but Lovina didn't pay much attention since she knew no workers by their names. Then there were a few bathrooms, laundry room and a cleaning closet, where they stopped for a moment so that the Italian could take a quick look of the tools she'd be using at work. After that they continued their journey, checking the remaining rooms in the upper floor. More bedrooms, most of them guestrooms, and lastly a big living room with several sofas and armchairs, a TV, radio, massive bookshelf filled with all kinds of books and it even had a small "cooking corner" with microwave, coffeemaker and a small fridge.

They skipped the balcony and went to downstairs to continue their tour. There were a few bedrooms too, but lot less than upstairs and they were all even bigger; same with the bathrooms. For Lovina's surprise, they even had a gym in the apartment, and two office-like rooms that were most likely Mr. and Mrs. Carriedos' working rooms. Then they went to kitchen via the dining room. The head chef was French and apparently his nephew was Antonio's best friend (not that Lovina cared). He spoke with a very heavy accent but Lovina understood most of his words nonetheless. The man was eager to demonstrate the kitchen equipment for then Italian and even asked if she'd have some good recipes that he could use since he was still very new to Italian cuisine. Lovina promised to get him a few of his grandma's old recipes when she had a change to do so.

After they were let away from the kitchen (which took a while since the cooks wanted badly Lovina to try some of their cooking), they went to the last room, which was a huge double-barreled living room. Room's décor was very similar to the one upstairs, but this room had a fireplace and a bunch of shelves that were filled with family photos. Lovina took a quick look at some of them and in almost every picture of there was Antonio, only exceptions being the few wedding photos she was able to detect. Lovina grabbed one of the photos and looked at it more closely; it had all the three Carriedos in it but two little detail got her attention. First, Mr. Carriedo was smiling at the picture, which alone wasn't that incredible (everyone had to smile sometime, no?), but it was quite old picture and Lovina had to admit that the young Mr. Carriedo looked a lot like Antonio. They had similar jaw and nose and they both had those gorgeous green eyes, even if Antonio's eyes were a bit brighter. The second thing the Italian noticed was the blank and sad look on little Antonio's face (he couldn't be older than five in the photo), as if he was sick. And it wasn't the only picture, but on the most of the baby or pre-school photos he had a sort of a tired, sad and painful look on his face.

Lovina kept wondering if he had hated the camera when he was a little (like Lovina herself had) and didn't enjoy being filmed but her thoughts were interrupted when Candice asked her to sit down. The Italian sat down on a wine-red armchair opposite Candice who places a small stack of papers on the round glass table. She pulled a pen from her pocket and scribbled something on the paper before nailing her brown eyes on the teen.

"So, you like what you saw?" she asked with interest when she refined her grip from a pen, and let out a small genuine laugh when Lovina told she had really liked the tour.

"Good. Now, I thought this is a good time for us to fill our contract", she mused as she placed the pen on the paper again. "We already filled most of the contract via phone earlier this week and we just need to make few additions", she explained. Lovina nodded in agreement.

"First, how you want me to pay for you? Entire months wage at once or do you want me to split it on two lots?" Candice asked.

"On two lots, please." After hearing the Italian's answer the Spaniard nodded and made some markings on the paper.

"What about the shifts? Do you prefer morning or evening and is there some important events for coming you and you need a day of?"

Lovina remembered her talk and the promise she made to Feliciana. "Umm… I think both are fine, you can choose freely the option that is more suitable for you", the Italian told. She liked sleeping late but she'd get used to early wakeups if she had to. "And I don't have any requirements for holidays, except that my sister and I have birthday on 17th this month, so if possible I'd like to have that day free. I can even replace it with some Saturday or Sunday if needed." Lovina was supposed to have all weekends free.

"Of course, it'll be no trouble! I understand that you want to spent some time with your family on your special day and actually, your relatives are always welcome to visit you here", Candice agreed brightly making more adds to the paper before handing it over to the Italian to read and sign.

Lovina read the contract through carefully, not that she was mistrusting Candice, but who knew if one specific person had made unwelcome additions to the contract? It, however, seemed to be flawless so the Italian grabbed the pen and signed. When done, she gave the papers back to Candice.

"Ah, thank you! I go take a copy of this", she piped up and hurried out of the room.

XOXOXO

It took a few minutes before Candice returned. She was carrying a small plastic bag and on her other hand there was the contract papers. The Spaniard gave the teen her copy of the contract and pulled a juice canister from the bag as well as a two plastic cups and a pack of cookies. She filled the cups and gave Lovina the blue one. She also offered her the cookies but the Italian declined them. She had already eaten more than what she was used to. Lovina wasn't sure what was about to happen next. She had expected that after receiving the contract she'd been free to go do whatever she wanted for the rest of the evening but it seemed like Candice wanted her to stay there.

"Now that we're done with the paper work, I want to tell you a few things", Candice spoke pompously. "You'll start working on Monday, and before you start working alone you'll work two weeks with Briseida - you met already; she'll educate you for your tasks. And then, another thing you should know about, smoking is absolutely forbidden." Candice's tone change from cheery to serious at this point, "I know your application told me you don't smoke, and I'm not saying you lie, but at your age it's natural you want to try new things. I'm okay with alcohol if it's only few glasses of wine or so every now and then, but smoking is an absolute no. At this house there is people with respiratory diseases, and I can tell from experience that even tiny bit of a smoke may have an unwelcome effects. "

Candice went on and on about the topic, mentioning few other things that were not recommended, like bringing hairy animals (well, Lovina had no pets, so it was no problem) to the house. Italian listened carefully. She wanted to internalize as much information as possible and didn't want to break any of the rules. When Candice stopped she asked if the Italian had any questions for her, which she really didn't, except for one. One thing had puzzled her since the first time she had talked with Candice. The time she had told her that she would get the job; why her. She had no actual special skills that would be helpful in this job nor did she have any other skills either. Only thing she had ever been good at besides cooking was painting and football. Not exactly what this job required.

"Umm… is there any specific reason why I was picked?" Lovina asked hesitantly. Her question surprised Candice. "I mean", the teen continued with a troubled voice. "I bet there were many applicants that had more experience and accomplishments that I do."

"Oh, well… I think personality is far more important than experience. Besides, we all are inexperienced at some point and everyone needs to work sooner or later, no?" Lovina noticed easily that something was off in the situation. She sensed the nervousness in her voice and the teen didn't quite buy the woman's explanation. There was a catch somewhere, there had to be, and the young Italian wanted to know what it was.

"No, I really want to know why, no matter what the reason is", Lovina demanded, hoping that she would not be pushing boundaries whit her questions.

Candice let out a heavy sigh. "Fine then, I hope you won't get mad at me. You see… it's partly how I said just a moment ago, but also because of your age."

"What has my age to do with anything?" Lovina insisted. She needed to know or it would bother her forever.

"Well, you see… I wanted to have someone who's close to Toni, age-wise that is", Candice confessed, a bit embarrassed. "The thing is, since we live this far from everything and everyone, Antonio really has no one to spent time with. He has some friends but they live far and seeing them regularly is hard. So, now that we needed a replacement for our retiring maid I thought I should pick someone young who really needs this money and who likes same things as Toni."

Lovina considered for a moment of asking what these similar interests were but she was too speechless. This had to be the weirdest reason ever to pick a worker, and she had heard damn many bizarre explanations during her life. She didn't know how she should have reacted; to be mad or sad or feel something completely different. She only knew that when she was confused she tended to let frogs out of her mouth and this time was no exception. "You never considered having more kids besides Antonio?"

Candice's face dropped. She looked lost and upset and Lovina couldn't help but to mentally slap herself for her lack of discretion. The Spaniard squeezed her chair's armrests and for a moment the teen thought that the older woman would start to cry.

"Oh well, I guess I can tell you this even if I really don't want to talk about this. You'll hear it from somewhere else anyway", Candice sighed, depressed, and rose from her seat and went to grab one of the pictures that lay on the shelf next to the stereos. She pressed the picture tightly against her chest before going back to the Italian teen. Lovina wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the reasons for Candice's grief, she had a bad feeling it would be something really bad.

"You'll see", Candice started very carefully and so silently that Lovina barely heard her. "I always wanted kids, at least one boy and a girl. Sergio wanted too. We were barely adults when we got married but it was no obstacle for us. I got my fair share of the incomes of this farms productions and Sergio had his father's company. The money was no issue for us and we had anything we needed to give a good living-environment for children. So, despite our young age we spent almost the entire honeymoon in bedroom, trying to make a baby. Eventually I got pregnant."

"That was Antonio?" Lovina asked. Usually he'd been 100% sure that she was right since Antonio was the only child but this story would most likely have sad ending (if it didn't Candice would not be this upset about it), so she didn't celebrate yet.

"No, silly. Antonio just had his 20th birthday, I'm positive I look older than a 40-year-old", Candice tried to sound amused and even positively surprised when Lovina had complimented her by saying she look like someone in the mid-thirties, but she couldn't hide the disappointment.

"A-a miscarriage?" Lovina took a second guess and was really shocked when Candice nodded.

"Yes, and it wasn't the only one. It wasn't hard for me to get pregnant, there were the few days in a month when having sex almost guaranteed me to start expect a baby, but every pregnancy ended the same way – the baby died during third month of my pregnancy, at latest."

Lovina would have loved to comfort the Spaniard but she didn't know how. She did understand that it had to be very painful; maybe she had never had kids (well, she was too young for kids anyway) so she didn't know exactly how painful it was, but she had lost both her parents and also witnessed how her usually so cheerful and exuberant grandfather had turned into an alcoholic after Mrs. Vargas had sunken to the coma. "What about Antonio?" Lovina asked. As dramatic and sorrowful this topic was, Candice did have Antonio so there must have been a stroke of luck for her at some point.

"Well, after around ten miscarriages I gave up. I decided I'm never going to try again. The thought of losing another child was so painful that it shut me from the world and I got very depressed. My business went down so badly that Sergio had to take control of it while also doing the work of his own company. I became so delusional that I didn't even let my husband to touch me, as if only a hug or a kiss could have make me go through all those painful things again. It continued over a year, until I got myself very drunk at one business dinner. I don't remember much, I only remember that Sergio dragged me from that stale hallway outside so I could clear my head and suddenly all my sexual tension and all my longing for intimacy erupted. I pressed him against a tree and begged him to fu-", Candice paused, realizing that she almost said a bad word in front of a young girl like Lovina.

"I practically live in ghetto. You can say fuck, it doesn't bother me", Lovina assured. She herself had a bad habit to swear like a sailor so one f-word was nothing.

"Ah, okay. Well, at first he really held it back. He knew how drunk I was and he didn't want to take an advantage of me. However, in the end he wanted me as much I wanted him, and he took me right there on the field."

Lovina listened and was glad that Candice didn't go into the dirty details. Still, Lovina couldn't help but to wonder what Candice's reaction had been when she had sobered up enough, probably troublesome for Mr. Carriedo, at least. "What happened next?"

"Well, when I got my head cleared I freaked out. I didn't remember much from the previous hours, even less than nowadays, and it's been over 20 years since it happened. I screamed and told him I wanted to have a divorce and accused that he took me by force. And even worse, I…"

Lovina couldn't help but to wonder what could possibly be worse than being blamed as a rapist, but then it hit her. Her eyes widened and he couldn't help but to feel pity towards the couple. Those must have been hard times for them if, no HELL of a times if Candice had accused Sergio of being a killer. The Spaniard apparently understood in which conclusion Italian had ended and nodded wearily.

"Candela, Fernando, Pastora, Quillermo… I yelled at Sergio how it was his fault that we were never able to use those names that we had wanted to give our children. I blamed him; I had to have a target where to unload my frustration, sorrow and anger, even if I knew perfectly well that he wasn't guilty. At some point of my raging he had enough; he snapped and me and even started to cry. He said I was being selfish. He had never raised his voice for me before that time, it opened my eyes – he was just as much in pain as I was. He never showed me how badly it hurt him to see me bleed, to see the blood that indicated that we had lost yet another child. He stayed solemn because he thought that his duty was to comfort me and ignore his own sorrow. We were both wrong."

"All this must have been a nightmare for you", Lovina stated compassionately.

"Yes, but that fight that I and my husband had only strengthened our relationship. Also, despite all the tears shed that time it's still of the best days of my life, because approximately nine months later I was holding my little Toni on my arms for the very first time."

All the pieces were together now and Lovina understand a lot better why Antonio had no siblings. If it took a dozen miscarriages before they got a healthy one, then it might take another dozen to have a second child. "I get it, after you finally got healthy child, you saw no reason to torture yourself more and go through more bad things."

For Lovina's surprise Candice shook her head and shoved the photo she had taken earlier into the young Italian's hands. Lovina stared the picture, noticing it was one of those where Antonio was little. If possible, he looked even unhappier in it than on the other pictures Lovina had seen. Lovina gave a questioning look to the Spanish lady who stared her dispirited. "Tell me Lovi, does he seem happy and healthy to you?"

Healthy? It was so-so. Happy? Definitely not. "Y-you mean, he wasn't healthy when he was born?"

Candice shook her head with a sad and disgusted look on her face. "When we went to the first ultrasound the first thing we were told by the staff was to get an abortion. They said that the chances for both of us to survive were only five percent, and the odds for only one of us to make it were over 60%. Well, and the remaining 30… we both would die. They said it would be stupid to risk my own life for a child that would most likely be born dead anyway. I was well aware of the risks but I decided to go all the way no matter what, since I was also well aware that it might have been my only chance to have a baby."

"When the time to give birth came almost everything went wrong. First, it wasn't the time yet, but delivery began over a month too early. Then there were multiple complications and in the end I had to be operated. Both Toni and I were taken to the intensive care unit and after that I lost my consciousness. The next couple weeks are black for – I wasn't aware of anything that happened around me. All the knowledge of those days came later on when the doctors and Sergio filled me in. Apparently it was a very close call for the both of us and at one point Toni even stopped breathing and he had to be resurrected. I was under observation for a month, Toni even longer. In total it took almost two months before we were allowed to leave the hospital but we still had to visit it weekly so that they were able to keep an eye on us, especially on Toni who's immune system was really weak which gave him infections very easily. And he had occasionally difficulties to breathe, which caused him a lot of pain. It lasted many years…"

At that point Candice was no longer able to hold the tears back. Lovina grabbed her hand to hope it would give some comfort. It was weird how a person she barely knew opened up this easily at her for such hard things. Suddenly the Italian felt an urgent need to hug Candice, and so she did so. The Italian's actions surprised Candice but in a good way. She responded to her hug and smoothed the teen's hair, humming gently.

"Lovi, I'm sorry that I opened up like this, I usually don't. I told you a lot more than the others know so I'd be happy if you didn't gossip about this", Candice requested, her eyes still wet. "I also hope that you don't bother yourself too much with this topic – Toni is all good now so no need to worry.

"Y-you know, I-I don't have much many male friends and I usually don't get that well along with guys", Lovina stated firmly, but her voice softened when she continued. "But, I guess I can hang out with Antonio as long as I don't need to be BFFs with him."

Candice's mood brightened and she pulled the Italian to another hug. "Ah, muchas gracias Lovina, you're such a sweet girl." Candice rejoiced and passed the bag to Lovina. "Could you take these to Antonio? I was supposed to give these for him a lot earlier but I forgot."

Lovina blinked but she felt like after what she had put Candice through she had no right to argue and deny. "Well, I guess I have nothing better to do anyway", she claimed and left the room unaware of how Candice dug a pill bottle from her pocket, opened it and poured some of them into her hand before flushing them down on her throat…

**XOXOXO **

Yay for the angst, all two and a half or so pages of it! Reviews would make me happy!

A side note: I'm planning to do some art of this fic so if there is a specific scene you want me to draw, tell me. In comments or Pm me, doesn't matter. I'll try to post the next chappy soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey everyone, it's time for the next chapter! See, I can update fast when I have time and a clear vision of what to do next. And thank you again for all my readers; you make my days so much brighter 3**

**Rhee-chan: Thank you for your comment, and your welcome. I think that by acknowledging my readers personally I can show them better how much their feedback actually means to me. Also, your picture request has been added to my 'to do list.' I'll try to get to it next week.**

**44mae: Yay, a new reader! Thank you for your comment; it makes me really happy when I see that this fic has new followers. And don't worry; Candice is not planning to kill herself.**

**Valkyrie: Ahh, thank you very much for reviewing again. Did I update fast enough? ;D**

**the killer imperfectionist: Thank you for your feedback! I'm really happy that you think that I did well with the emotional part. Actually, there will be GerIta in this fic, but it still focuses on Toni/Lovi and GerIta has a very minor part in it. Still, I must confess that I've been planning to write a companion fic for this that would be told on Feli's POW and thus it would focus on GerIta. I'll probably write it if I have time/people want me to do so :3**

**Also, many of you wondered about the pills. Well, the reasons behind Candice using them will be told in the chapter after this one.**

**Now, here's the fifth chapter, some Lovina/Antonio interaction here. Read and review please.**

**xoxoxo**

Chapter 5

Finding Antonio's room was easy. It would have been easy even without Candice's instructions. Every door of the house was similar; they were white and wooden, except Antonio's one. It had been similar to the others once, you could still see the white color, but now it was covered on different pictures that were painted in it (most likely with finger paints). They were very childlike scribbles, something a little child would do, like bunch of different colored flowers, a sun, a bunch of greenish brown lumps that might be turtles and a red round circles with a hint of green – tomatoes. And lastly, there were three stick-figure-like people drawn in it: a child and two adults – Antonio and his parents.

Lovina studied the pictures a while before knocking the door, she had to admit that the drawings were rather cute and she couldn't help but to wonder if his parents had been angry at him when he had 'smudged' the door. Lovina remembered how shocked her parents had been when they had discovered her and Feliciana's drawings in the wallpapers.

Lovina wake up from her thoughts as she heard a cheerful 'come in' almost immediately after her knock. The Italian opened the door and stepped in to the room, but she barely managed to take a few steps before she felt a pair of strong arms pull her aside.

"What the hell?" Lovina exclaimed as she first recovered from the surprise and noticed that she was now practically sitting on Antonio's lap. She felt a blush to rose on her cheeks as her eyes made contact with the Spaniard's. Lovina wasted no time to escape from the Spaniard's lap and placed herself next to him on his bed.

"¡Lo siento! I didn't mean to scare you like this but you almost step on her!" Antonio apologized and pointed on the floor where a little turtle was crawling on the exact spot where Lovina had almost landed her feet on just seconds ago.

Lovina huffed as she crossed her arms. She was happy that she didn't crush the small creature but it didn't mean Antonio could touch her like that. "Well, why is it on the floor anyway. Shouldn't it be on its terrarium or wherever the normal people keep them? Dammit."

Antonio chuckled a little and took the turtle on his palms. "I usually keep them in the terrarium but I was cleaning it just a moment ago so I had to keep them somewhere else when doing so. People rarely come to my room so it's okay to keep them there", Antonio told which made the Italian to investigate the floor more closely. True, there were more than just one turtle, in total she spotted four of them.

"Well, when you said it's okay to come in, maybe you could have also given me a turtle alert!" Lovina growled but she didn't manage to be as harsh as she wanted to.

"I never blamed you", Antonio whined, "… and I already apologized, no?"

Lovina rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her sides. "Whatever. Just finish the cleaning or whatever you were doing so that you can put them back", Lovina grunted. She knew how clumsy she could be so it was far better if these creatures would be put back in their terrarium. Bad things could happen otherwise.

"Sí. It won't take long", Antonio stated and got back to the terrarium.

xxx

Lovina spend a moment of following the Spaniard's cleaning. There were lot of thoughts on her head and she had almost forgotten the reason why she ever came to Antonio's room in the first place. Lovina palpated the bag she was supposed to give to Antonio and she barely managed to control herself and not to examine its contents. Those might have been very private things. She had another idea. If she was forced to stay on the Spaniard's room while this was cleaning at least she could take this as an opportunity to learn more about the young Carriedo. After all, the best way to learn about new people was to check through their room.

Lovina started at the walls and was happy to notice that there were no dirty calendars or posters on the walls (it was quite typical for men of his age after all.). Also, with a quick peek on his nightstand and under the bed she came to the conclusion that there were no pornographic content to be found, unless he had hidden them well.

Antonio apparently deduced what the Italian was up to since he laughed a little. "Did my dad send you to raid my room?" Antonio wasn't kidding with his question. His dad did raid his room occasionally. Usually after, according to him, Antonio has spent too much with his perverted friends. Apparently he was afraid that they might infect him.

"N-no, I just felt like looking around", the Italian confessed as she investigated more closely the posters Antonio had. Most of them were football themed and Lovina recognized all the players in them. Well, at least she had found a topic that seemed to be important for both of them. Lovina, too, was a football 'addict' after all.

Other things that received the Italians attention were Antonio's desk that was full of photos of his parents (it seemed he worshipped them as much as they did him), a tomato shaped pillow, TV and VCR with a shelf full of videos. They were mostly either romantic comedies or documents. No horror, no action, no thrillers. Every guy Lovina knew from her neighborhood would have fainted from the shock if they knew that a guy who didn't seem to like about bloody and violent movies existed.

Well, so far Antonio seemed to be a rather innocent and kind person without big flaws and Lovina's image of Antonio even brightened when she noticed a guitar that rested against his bed. Lovina couldn't help but to wonder how well he could play and if he was good would he be willing to teach a song or two for her. She did play a piano a bit, which was mostly due the fact that it had been hard for Feliciana to fall asleep without a bed time story or a lullaby when she was little. There were times when their mother had to work late and because their father was really bad at telling stories and as unmusical as one can be had Lovina forced herself to learn a few of Feli's favorite songs.

Also, as Lovina had already concluded, Antonio was a turtle lover. There was calendar with turtles, he had a photos of his turtles taped above his headboard and his bedding was turtle themed. He had even a turtle plushie! Lovina wasn't sure what to think about it. It was both cute and freaky at the same time. The Italian took a closer look on it and it seemed to be rather old. Maybe Antonio had gotten it when he was little and it had grown to be very important for him.

"Any specific reasons you came to see me?" Antonio asked, getting the Italian's attention. He had finished his cleaning and was now putting the turtles back to the terrarium.

"Oh, your mother asked me to bring you these", Lovina responded and gave the back to the Spaniard. Antonio put the last turtle to its home and thanked the Italian as he received the bag.

He started to go through the stuff in it. There was more food for the turtles, a few sport magazines and something that really got to the Italian's eyes.

"Ah, my asthma meds! I was starting to get worried if she forgot to buy them", Antonio sighed with relief as he opened the medicine cabinet next to his wardrobe and placed the medical products there.

"You have asthma?" Italian asked. She did remember Candice mentioning that someone had some sort of respiratory diseases but it was hard to imagine Antonio with asthma. The Italian didn't know much about the disease but she remembered reading that exercise may cause asthma attacks. Judging from Antonio's muscular body he did quite a lot of physical exercise.

"Yeah, but it's not a big deal, I can control it quite well. I have a good environment to live – no plants whose pollen gives me allergic reactions nearby, no furry animals, nobody here smokes and there isn't much traffic or other sources of pollution."

"What about training, or are you telling me you used some fucking hormones to get a body like that?" Lovina didn't really care; she just wanted to find something that would defile the 'perfect boy' appearance of Antonio's. He was too fucking perfect to be real, he had to have flaws.

"Oh! Well, the effects of sports are quite individual actually. I'm okay with exercising as long as I'm not overworking myself. I mean, even a person without asthma can have similar symptoms if they burden themselves too much. Usually, if I have an attack during physical training, I get it when I'm outside and the weather is cold. Breathing too much of a cold air is very bad for me", Antonio explained as he jumped on his bed and motioned the Italian to join him.

Lovina sighed but sat next to him anyway. She didn't feel too comfortable about the situation and she really wanted to go back to her room. However, Antonio has asked her to stay and seemed to be very eager to spent time with her. Had Candice told Antonio that she had hired Lovina as her 'playmate' as well?

"So…", Antonio started carefully and stopped to think. He must have tried to figure out a good way to start a conversation, but he seemed to know nothing about Lovina and was now stuck to wonder what would be a topic that interested her. As funny as Antonio looked when was a pensive like this Lovina decided to take matters to her own hands.

"You have a very nice door in your room", Lovina told, having a hint of tease in her voice. She loved art and wanted to know if Antonio still liked to draw. Or even better, if there was a funny or embarrassing story behind the existence of the paintings, she wanted to hear them.

Antonio blushed a bit. "I-I've told mom that I want to paint it like it was but she won't listen to me", Antonio mumbled. If there was a topic he didn't like to talk about it was this. "I bet that one day, if she decides to sell the farm, she'd rip the door from its hinges and take it to the new apartment."

Lovina smiled teasingly at the Spaniard who seemed so uncomfortable that Lovina felt sorry him. But not enough to change the topic! "Aww, come on. There must be some story behind it. I'd like to hear it", Lovina asked as sweetly and innocently as she could. It didn't seem to convince the Spaniard though, which didn't surprise Lovina. Her sister had always been million times better with her puppy dog-look.

"If you tell me, I let you ask me any question you want!" Lovina promised, making the Spaniard finally surrender.

"Anything? Okay then. But promise me you don't laugh, this is quite awkward", Antonio begged.

"Yeah, yeah, I promise. Now, tell me already will you", Lovina demanded impatiently.

"Well. When I was four we moved here from Spain. Our former apartment had been very small so you must realize how shocked I was with the size of this farm", Antonio revealed and after Lovina asked reasons for their moving Antonio simply stated that they lived in an environment that was very bad for him with his illness. Lovina nodded, remembering the conversation he had had earlier with Candice.

"So, I was given my very own room – I hadn't had one before. Unfortunately for me my parents' room wasn't next to me but on the other side of the first floor. So I…"

Lovina chucked at the redness of Antonio's face. This seemed to be something VERY embarrassing for him and Lovina was almost positive that Antonio would do his best to get Lovina to the same position sooner or later. She craved the Spaniard to continue.

"Umm… It naturally made me sad that I had to be so far from mamá and papá, I was only four so I… I remember I started to cry. I was very afraid that since they were so far they would forget me or that they wouldn't find my room when I needed them to come see me." Antonio kept a short pause, searching marks of glee and amusement from the Italian's face and when he didn't discover either of them he continued. "I cried a while, even harder when mamá left at some point. I only calmed down after she got back with a set of finger paints and hugged me. And then… she said that I could decorate my door with the paints so that she'd always know which one is my room. And well, you saw the result", Antonio ended his story.

Lovina was stunned. Did the Spaniard really think that was embarrassing? Well, maybe boys would like to laugh at something like that but it wasn't that bad. And maybe Lovina would have judged Antonio as a 'mama's boy if she hadn't heard about the difficulties they'd been through. But for a sick and a small child it was only natural to want his parents near him.

"You were really worrying over nothing", Lovina said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "I don't know about boys but I can assure that every single of my female friends ("not that there is much of them', Lovina thought in her mind), would find that only frigging adorable and cute."

"Really? My best friends mock me about it all the time."

"I bet they are guys. Most guys are bastards", Lovina stated firmly, making Antonio blink a few times. He seemed confused.

"Eh, you don't like me?" Antonio sounded like a kicked puppy that had just been neglected.

"I never said that", Lovina growled, annoyed. "But I need to learn a lot more about you before I can state my holy opinion about you."

Antonio's mood brightened instantly. He leaned to hug the Italian who was too distracted to fight back. The hug lasted only a while but long enough to make the Italian's face completely red.

"Aww, you look do cute when you blush, like a tomato!" Antonio pointed out with a sing-song voice and managed only barely (and accidentally) dodge the Italian's head-butt.

The Spaniard didn't even notice what Lovina had attempted to do but he hurried to his chest of drawers and opened one of the drawers. He grabbed a small package that lay there, wrapped on shiny fuchsia colored paper. He hurried back to the already calmed Italian who blanked as she saw the package in Antonio's palms.

"This is for you, a welcoming gift", Antonio stated as he gave the box to Lovina. The Spaniard observed closely how the Italian started to unwrap the gift. He really hoped she'd like it. "Mom bought you a gift as well but she decided to give it to you tomorrow morning. She is usually the one who chooses the gifts for the workers because she knows better what they might like. But when I heard that we get a young maiden like you to work here I really wanted to buy something for you~", Antonio cooed, making the Italian's cheeks redden again.

Lovina did her best to ignore Antonio's stare as she finally had gotten rid of the paper. She opened the soft pink-clothed case nervously revealing a silver bracelet. Lovina stared at it in shock. This had to be a joke right? It looked way too expensive for Lovina to feel comfortable around it.

"I-I can't take this. I understand little gifts but this is too… it must have cost a fortune", Lovina protested and shoved the jewel back to Antonio, making him pout.

"But Lovi", he whined making the Italian frown because of the nickname. "I spend so much time figuring out what you might like and now you don't want to have it?" Antonio looked incredibly sad and helpless as he twiddled the box in his hands. Seeing him like that hurt the Italian for some reason.

"I-it's not that I don't like it, dammit", the Italian cursed. "You just shouldn't spend so much money on someone who you don't know!"

"Ah, but Lovi! It may seem like it had a high price but it didn't. It's mostly just cheap metal that has been coated with silver to make it look nice and genuine but to keep the price affordable." Antonio pushed the box back to Lovina who stared the bracelet. It was very beautiful but what if Antonio was lying about the price? "And if you think my gift is expensive, mom's is probably at least twice the price. I have already lost the count of how many designer bowls and feeding sets she has bought to the workers in total."

"Fine then, I'll have it", Lovina gave up. It was too damn pretty for her to resist and she didn't want to make Antonio sad. "But if I find out that this was fucking expensive I'll return it, okay!"

Antonio nodded with pleased look on his face. At least he didn't seem to freak out about her threat to discover the bracelet's origins, so maybe he was telling the truth after all, or maybe they simply had a different view of what is expensive. Lovina put the pink box to her pocket. She would take a closer look of the jewelry on her room. She didn't want Antonio to see how much she was already in love with the bracelet.

"By the way, Lovina. You said I can ask you anything if I shared the story of my door. I did, so can I ask you the question now?"

Lovina sighed. She had hoped that Antonio would have forgotten the whole thing but it seemed he didn't have as short memory as she thought he would. "Okay then, what do you want to know?"

Antonio pondered a moment what to ask. It had to be something that the Italian would refuse to tell him if she didn't have to answer. "Well, what is your most embarrassing childhood memory? I told you mine so I think it's fair you tell me yours", Antonio tried to sound as charming and sweet as he could hoping that this way Lovina would be more willing to tell him.

"As I said, it was not embarrassing. Your question is not fair!" Lovina argued but the Spaniard didn't seem to give up. He kept shaping the same request in a multiple ways but he didn't manage to trick the Italian.

Luckily for Lovina the phone rang. "Shouldn't you answer that?" Lovina asked, trying to change the subject.

"All the more reason to tell me quickly; It might be an important call and it'd be your fault if I miss it", Antonio said. He wasn't planning to threat the Italian but he was hoping he'd manage the make Italian to think so.

The Italian listened the sound of the phone, nervous. She had to come up with an excuse not to tell anything for the man but she was out of ideas. It seemed like she had no change but to try a compromise. "Okay then, what if you answer the phone now, and in return I let you ask me two things tomorrow. But neither of them can be the question you've tried to ask. Sounds fair no?"

Spaniard thought about the different options ending up to the solution that Lovina's suggestion was good. "Okay then, I'll bug you some more tomorrow then!" He stated happily. "Goodnight then Lovi!"

"Goodnight, Antonio", Lovina wished as she rose from the bed and headed to the door and out of the room.

She heard distantly how Antonio picked the phone and greeted someone enthusiastically but she had other things to think about. She pulled the box from her pocket and grabbed the bracelet, admiring it. She slipped it on her wrist and put the box back from where she had taken it. The bracelet had fish-theme in it; several types of fish both engraved ones and reliefs. She wasn't sure what had made Antonio pick that specific one, but the theme fit her perfectly well. Her horoscope was Pisces after all. She wasn't superstitious nor did she believe in horoscopes, but maybe she would check tomorrow what the stars were promising for her. For some reason she has a feeling that tomorrow would be a good day…

xxx

**A/N: I still take art requests if you're interested. Also, let me know if you want me to write that GerIta fic I mentioned earlier!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Oh God, I'm really sorry about the delay of this update but I've been quite occupied recently with my job and when I finally thought I could finally complete this chapter I got attacked by some eye infection. I already visited the doctor before but the meds didn't work so I had to go there again to see if they could switch my medication. The blinking still hurts but It's getting better. Lets hope there is no delays with my next update.  
><strong> 

** Rhee-chan: **Thanks again. I'm really happy that you pointed out my stupid typo in my author's note. It might still be there if you hadn't pointed it out ^^'  
>My writing is giving you uncontrollable fan-girl reactions?! That's awesome. Also, I've started your pic request and I try to finish it so that I can link it to next chappy<p>

** AliceMitch09: **Thank you again for your comment and the critique, I apologize my grammatical errors. English is not my native tongue thus my English isn't perfect. I'll do my best to keep the text as flawless as possible but sometimes there are errors I don't spot even if I check the text several times. Grammar has always been the biggest issue for me since all the rules are so different compared to the ones in Finnish. Hopefully I can improve my English as this fic goes on.  
>Antonio is giving you diabetes? Well, this is nothing compared to some things I've planned to do so be prepared :D<p>

** Yanelle: **Oh, a new stalker reader! Oh god, your review is so long that I can't help but to heart you~. Servant/master stuff is awesome, even more so than Prussia (I've already planned some topic related kinks that I may add to this fic when we get to the smex (:

Hmm… the answers to your questions: 1. Lovina in the current chapters is fifteen but as stated earlier her birthday is in a couple of weeks (so she'll be 16 very soon) so her and Toni's age difference is 4 years, 2. The reason of Candice using pills will be told in this chapter, 3. It may take a while before we get to the "M" content – I don't want to rush things, 4. There will be some side pairings but they will have a rather small role. Thank you for all those kind words, I rarely write anything fluffy so I'm happy it pleases you.

** Valkyrie99: **Thank you for reviewing again. You'll about to find out Antonio's questions very soon.

** inogurl: **I'm happy to hear my pacing is good. I'm occasionally afraid that what I'm focusing too much into one thing and story gets too slow or repetitious. Thank you for your comment.

** MikoTomoko: **Better late than never, no? Well, I'm happy you decided to review now, thank you for that. I love the feeling that I get when I see that I have a new reader. Also yay, this must be the first time ever when any of my readers shares a name with my OC \o/

** Microwaves: **Aww thanks~ I'm so glad you like this fic. I do my best with the updates!

** carrot341 and GothicKitty1313: **Happy to have a new readers. Thank you for feedback and I promise I do my best to update ASAP. **  
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**XXX**

Chapter 6

Lovina hated it when she had to wake up when she still wanted to sleep, especially on weekends, but if there was one thing she hated even more thank early wake ups it was the feeling of hunger. She growled annoyed as her stomach reminded once again that she should go downstairs to have something to eat.

She cursed silently in her mind and dragged herself to the wardrobe so she could dress herself up. She chose a brown skirt that was a little too short for her liking, a pink headband, and a black t-shirt with "You can either agree with me or be wrong!" –text in it (because it was one of the few ones that didn't contain inappropriate sentences like '_I'm with stupid_, _get a life'_, '_fuck the rules'_ and '_People like YOU are the reason people like ME need medication'_, to mention a few,) and grabbed the fish-bracelet from nightstand and slipped it on her wrist. She took a quick look on the mirror and after she thought she was looking decent enough to attend the dining room for breakfast she switched of the lights and left her room. 

XXX 

When Lovina got to the dining room there was no one there, except Mr. Carriedo who was reading the newspaper and sipping his coffee. Lovina didn't feel like joining him (because the thought of the two of them alone being in the same room with no-one around was creepy enough) so she was about to rush away before he the Spaniard would notice her. Unfortunately for her the moment when Lovina was about to turn on her heels was also the moment when Sergio finished reading and lift his gaze from the paper. 

"Oh, good morning Lovina", he greeted with a lot less snide tone that the Italian had expected.

"You are early, didn't get any sleep did you?" he stated as he motioned the teen to take a seat. 

"No, I just thought I was supposed to wake early", she mumbled as she sat on a chair and reached for the bread basket. She grabbed two slices and coated them both with strawberry jam. 

"It's almost impossible to keep the breakfast early", Sergio said and took another sip from his coffee. "Getting Antonio out of bed before forenoon is pretty much impossible. 

Lovina almost chuckled. She knew what it was like when one slept too long for others liking since she was a bit of a sleepy head too. Still, her sister was even worse and Lovina could have sworn that half of their grandfather's gray hair were caused by the stress he received when he had to make sure that the sisters woke up to school or work or to some another important happening on time. 

"Hmm... so everyone wakes up when they want to?" Lovina asked, taking a bite of her bread. "I mean, you're here already." 

"No, not really. Antonio's friend called yesterday and he's coming for a visit. His car is at maintenance so I need to pick him up. It takes a couple hours to drive there so I think it's better if I go get him earlier", Sergio stated. "Plus, I really didn't get much sleep. Candice seemed weird when she went to be and she told me nothing although I'm SURE something was bothering her."

Lovina was able to feel a sting in his voice, and she knew it was obvious that he thought that whatever bothered her, Lovina was the one to be blamed. Lovina couldn't argue though, since she had a strong feeling that it was about the conversation she had had with her on the day before.

"She told me about Antonio", Lovina decided to answer. Being honest was probably the wisest thing to do. "About all the difficulties you've been through", she clarified and Sergio's reaction was about the same as she thought it would be. He almost choked on his coffee. 

"I see...", he said from the middle of a cough. "Did she tell you anything else?" He sounded both worried and troubled.

"Nothing that would have sunk in to my mind", Lovina answered with more curiosity than she wanted to admit. Was there more unspoken and dark topics?

"I should have known", he growled with frustration. "I've told her she shouldn't hide her disease but she just keeps pretending she's alright."

"A disease?"

Sergio sighed and nailed his eyes into the Italian. "If and when I tell you this, pretend you never heard this. Especially not from me", he was nervous, glancing at the door like he was afraid someone would join them. Candice would definitely get mad if she'd hear that her husband has been blabbering about her private things for everyone. Still, it was a serious matter and Sergio had decided that Lovina should know about the whole thing, it would be best for everyone. The Italian nodded furiously, promising that she'd keep it all to herself which please the Spaniard. "Good, now let me tell you everything..."

XXX 

"Mmmh, I don't want to get up yet!" 

Candice chuckled at the sleepy look on Antonio's face. She rarely disturbed her son if he still wanted to sleep but the faces he made when she did so were so extremely funny and cute that sometimes she couldn't resist to wake him up like this, with kisses and hugs. Sergio was going to pick Francis so there was no one to help her with the few tasks she always did together with her husband. She needed Antonio's help.

"Please, sweetie. Feliks is on his vacation and your dad is leaving at any second to get your friend. There is no way I can do triple chores, especially since I promised Lovina that I show her the surroundings and you know very well it might take a while", she begged, but Antonio only buried his face to the pillow, mumbling how he is still way too tired to work.

"Let me sleep mom", the young Spaniard whined as he did every time someone tried to force him out of the bed.

"I'm really sorry mi querido, but you are leaving me no choice~", she cooed before attacking Antonio in a way that always worked – by tickling.

"Noooo mom, stop that", Antonio protested but couldn't help but to burst into laughter. Candice didn't stop until her son finally gave up and promised to help him. "But I need something to eat first!"

"Sí, I made us some packed lunch... or breakfast. Call it whatever you want to", Candice said cheerfully and grabbed a red box from the floor to show it to Antonio. "Now get up from that big comfy bed of yours and get dressed. I wait you outside." 

Antonio watched as his mother left the room but before she closed the door she give him a look that pretty much meant "if I don't see you in the hallway in the next five minutes I get yesterday's already chilled irrigation water and throw it on you". Antonio didn't want that so she crawled to reach his pants from the floor which was enough to convince his mother that he'd do exactly as he was told to. 

XXX 

Lovina had sat there together with Mr. Carriedo for almost half an hour. He had told her everything about Candice's sickness which seemed to be rather severe. She was under constant medication and she had to avoid both physical activities and stress. Apparently she was in the queue for a heart transplant but it was a very long one, plus her disease was somewhat controllable with medicines so the doctors didn't think her state was that critical.

"Why is this topic forbidden?" Loving wondered. She did understand that Mrs. Carriedo might feel annoyed if everyone kept telling her what to do because they wanted to be careful with her health but there was no reason to get upset or angry about it.

Mr. Carriedo seemed troubled. He stared the Italian seriously but also sadly. "It's because of Antonio."

It took a moment before Lovina understood what the Spaniard meant. "You mean, it's because... he is the cause?"

"P-please, don't put it that way", Sergio begged. He seemed like he could have either flipped or burst into tears at any moment. He buried his head to his his hands and Lovina could have sworn she heard a silent sob. "I-it's... my wife was born with her disease but back then she didn't have to use pills, only do her best to keep her blood pressure down." The Spaniard kept a short break to steady his breathing; he really did his best not to break down in front of the Italian. "When Antonio was born, Candice's health went downhill. She didn't care, of course, she thought that the small rupture in her heart and all the other issues were a small price for Antonio."

"Every parent would think the same way", Lovina agreed. "But it must be hard for Antonio."

Sergio nodded. "Yes, but at first we actually tried to hide it from him", Sergio confessed. "Imean, my wife had always been sick so why to go into the little details? We thought it would be a lot better if he didn't know about the consequences."

"But he found out?"

"Yes, yes he did", he sighed, looking defeated. "And in the worst way possible. I'd be happy if I didn't have to tell you how or how things went afterwards. Let's just say he feels 'a bit' guilty about it."

Lovina didn't argue. There were things she'd never tell anyone so it would be fair not to get too curious about other people's private things. The Italian watched how the Spaniard glanced his clock nervously, obviously realizing that he was very much late from his schedule. He rummaged his pockets to make sure he had his keys before he stormed off. When he got on the door he turned around and gave a worried look to the Italian.

"Can I trust you with this matter, that you keep this to yourself?!"

"I promise I keep my mouth shut", Lovina assured, which seemed to please the Spaniard, although he still wasn't 100 percent sure if he could trust the Italian teen.

"Are you sure?" He asked, looking for a final confirmation.

"Positive", Lovina assured again, getting a bit annoyed. She really didn't care what Mr. Carriedo thought about her but it was depressing that he didn't seem to trust her. She might be an evil bitch sometimes but she tended to keep her promises unless the other party broke their part of the deal first. Also, she would never hurt anyone on purpose, not with mental things (physical violence was completely different thing).

"Good. You better do because the fastest way to get yourself fired is to speak about this in public. You can break as many windows and vases as you want and sleep late – Candice don't mind. But, if you ever mention anything about this topic my wife will raise a hell and trust me on this one... you don't want to see that happen", Sergio said firmly before he left, leaving the Italian to wonder how badly Mrs. Carriedo would flip if she ever found out that she knew...

**XXX**

**A/N: Goosh, this was a short chapter and not much happened but you found out the reason why Candice has to use pills. There will be more Lovina+Antonio interaction in the next chapter, and I love the Bad Touch Trio so be prepared to have some Gilbert and Francis in the next chapter as well(and in many other chapters too). Please read & review. **


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