Chapter Text
Antonio's POV
Another peaceful day. It was one of those afternoons where the library was completely silent except for the soft sound of rain against the windows, and the occasional turning of a paper. These kind of days might be peaceful, but to Antonio they were quite dull. Usually he would spend his working hours walking between the shelves and watching those whom were visiting. Since the library was big with a convenient café inside, a lot of students spent their time there studying, and in such ways he saw a lot of different types of people. Everything from a stressed student, to one that had a day off and had decided to relax, all kinds of youths found their own enjoyment in the building. Antonio himself enjoyed to think of how these students’ lives were outside the library, how their day had been before they entered the stillness. Since he was a social person, the usual silence never truly appealed to him and instead made him feel restless. Yet, no matter how restless he might feel on a day like this, he knew that he needed this job if he were to survive. With this in thought, he kept the small smile playing so gently on his lips as he walked around.
Suddenly, he saw a familiar man standing by one of the bookshelves. The brown-haired youth took out a book from the shelf, and a pair of hazel eyes looked down on the cover with a soft frown upon his forehead. Antonio’s heart skipped a beat as it always did whenever he saw the beautiful profile. The reason he recognised this male was not because he had talked to him, but only because he found himself watching him whenever he was there. For an unknown reason the pretty man visited the library frequently, and Antonio had been dying to speak to him since the first time he saw him. There was something about those thoughtful eyes, and his bouncy brown hair that appealed to something deep within him. Perhaps it was the coldness and distant aura which surrounded him that made Antonio curious to what was hiding beneath the surface. Why he had not approached him was for the fact that he had always been looked down upon because of his sexuality. Many that he had been interested in, and even flirted with, turned their backs to him with a disgusted glare. One could only handle such a hurtful act a few times before one got wary of every situation. Nonetheless, how could he ever know that it wouldn’t work out if he never tried?
Gathering up the strength, he decided to take a step forwards despite his experiences with similar situations before, and approached the man. Antonio felt his heart hammering widely as he was so nervous that he was making a mistake approaching this man. No matter how social he was or how much he wished for more, he was still so awfully nervous. He was just about to open his mouth to say hi as his foot hit the corner of a shelf that he had not noticed, and before he could react he was falling to the floor. Shocked he could do nothing but let himself plummet down until suddenly he felt a pair of arms hindering his embarrassing fall. A splash of warm liquid struck his clothes, and he looked around wildly to see whom had saved him. As his eyes turned upwards, still wide in shock and in confusion, he felt his heart stop. The eyes above him were hazel brown.
“I-I’m sorry!” Antonio stuttered and quickly gained back his balance with the stranger’s help, an embarrassed flush upon his cheeks, “I am so terribly sorry!”
To his own even greater embarrassment, he noticed that the liquid he had felt was nothing else but coffee, and that it was all over the two of them. What he had not noticed earlier was that the stranger had been holding a cup as he was reading the back of the book, and now when Antonio came tumbling, he spilled. Of all the things he could have done, he had fallen and completely ruined the introduction he had been planning for so long. His heart was now hammering widely, and he felt his hands growing sweatier in nervousness.
“Be more careful!” the voice was that answered him was rough, but despite that Antonio could not help but find it beautiful in its own unique way, “I got coffee all over me now! Fuck!”
Guilt washed over Antonio as the cold voice made his heart hammer even heavier, and without thinking he grasped the stranger’s wrist. From where this burst of actions came from, he did not know but he quickly dragged the stranger off to the café. In panic he could think of nothing else but somehow fixing the mistake he had made. Without waiting any further, he took some paper from the dispenser and started to dry off the coffee that still dripped from the other all the while his heart hammered.
“I am so sorry!” was all he could say as the embarrassed blush still burned furiously on his cheeks and his eyes showed his regret clearly, “I will repay you somehow! I promise! My name is Antonio, and you can complain about me to my boss all you want to! Please forgive me! But also please don’t be too rough ‘cuz I really need this job!”
While he was blabbering like a fool, too nervous to consider what he actually said, the stranger gently pushed Antonio away. “Stop apologising!” the tenseness in the stranger’s voice was clear even to the oblivious Spaniard whom stood dumfounded with the tissues still in his hands “You are as equally drenched as I am… No harm done, so just please back off—“
At those words Antonio took a step back, surprised. For an unknown reason he couldn’t help but notice that the stranger wore a slight blush beneath the bewildered expression. For a second it amused him and again he smiled, but the smile quickly vanished as he remembered the situation at hand. How could he have let himself be clumsy again? Somehow he wanted to make amends as he was scared to never see the beautiful face ever again. Despite the fact that he had never spoken to him before, he couldn’t help himself from wanting to fix it all, or to at least befriend the other.
“Still!” he kept pushing in his desire to fix everything, and he tried to show in the depth of his eyes how much he truly regretted his actions, “I can’t let you walk away like this! That would be against my heart! I need to repay you! I can—I can buy you lunch!”
Without realising it, Antonio had found himself asking for a lunch. Once he grasped the true meaning behind his suggestion, he also understood that no one would say yes to a stranger whom just ruined your clothes. How could he find something they had in common so that the other felt that he could eat lunch with him? Quickly he continued to speak as he glanced on the book that the other had taken from the shelf and that he still held in his hand. 1984 stood across the cover in red, and he recognised it immediately. “As to repay for the cup of coffee wasted, your shirt, and to restore my honour, I’ll buy you lunch! We can discuss the book you’ve got there! I’ve read it and I truly recommend it”
The stranger seemed hesitant about the suggestion, and for a moment it seemed as if he would deny it. For a while the two of them just stood in silence. Antonio’s heart kept hammering wilder than it had for years, and he felt as if he could not breathe. Who would ever accept such an odd request? The longer they stood without anything said, the more he felt his heart grow heavier. It was an insane suggestion that no one would take. “Fine!” the stranger said suddenly, his voice rough, and a flush of relief washed over Antonio by just that mere word as he could not believe what he had just heard.
“Muchos gracias! Thank you very much!” Antonio continued before he could be rejected, and he smiled now at last as he felt his whole being lifting into a wonderful joy, “What about Friday? At twelve? I end job at that time so we could meet here!”
For a moment, those beautiful hazel eyes were locked with his own. His heart kept hammering widely by just standing there, and to his own relief the other soon nodded. A look of annoyance was upon that face, but Antonio decided to look past that. After all, he had somehow managed to ask the other out even though he had messed up so badly. Perhaps, the whole situation had not been that bad after all?
“If nothing unexpected happens, I suppose I can do that…” the slight mumble made Antonio so incredibly happy that he quickly extended his hand to the other, a smile now wide upon his lips. Heartbeats echoed in his head as he opened his mouth to speak, seeing how the other’s eyes turned from bothered to confused. Yet, he was unable to hold himself back anymore as he felt his chest as warm and bright as the sun.
“I’m Antonio! I know I already said that but—“ he scratched the back of his head awkwardly with his other hand and before he knew it, a much softer, colder hand grasped his extended hand. The feeling surprised him at first since he had never expected his hand to be taken, but now when he felt the gentle skin against his own, he was mesmerised once more. Slowly they shook hands, and their eyes met once more. Antonio’s own green, happy eyes meeting the pair of insecure hazel ones.
“I’m Lovino”