Room 2: Alec & Antonio's room

Alec let out a loud yawn and stretched his arms high over his head, feeling some of his slightly sore muscles groaning in response. There wasn't much for him to do on his first day back, so after having unpacked all his stuff and pinned up his Pacquiao poster along with a small Filipino flag on his side of the room, he had gone to the school's gym for a while. After returning and seeing that his roommate still wasn't there, Alec didn't feel guilty about being a bit sloppy and kicking his shoes off and stripping off his slightly damp shirt and tossing it in the corner. He'd of course clean it up later, but for now, he decided to just blast some music on his ipod and flop down on his bed for a little while until his body cooled down a bit more.

Antonio was struggling with his trunk. He wished, not for the first time, that he'd gotten a model with wheels. He knocked on the door with his foot. "Abrir la puerta, por favor!" he called through the door.

Alec, unfortunately for Antonio, still had his headphones blaring in his ears and couldn't hear his distant cousin kicking at the door. Instead, he just rolled over on his bed and nuzzled his face into his pillow, wondering at the back of his head when Antonio would get here.

A string of oddly cheerful Spanish curses later, Antonio let the trunk fall with a heavy thud. Chest heaving, he opened the door. "Alec~" he beamed, then realized his cousin couldn't hear him. He snuck up to the bed, giggling a little, before pouncing on the Filipino and tickling him in the ribs.

A loud yelp of surprise escaped the smaller male as he jerked his head around to face his "attacker", his headphones falling off in the process. "Gyah! Kuya, cut it out!" he pleaded, fighting back his own giggles while trying to wiggle away from the other's hands.

"Neverrrr~" Antonio laughed, tickling Alec mercilessly. "I haven't seen you in a while...I'm really glad you're my roommate." He stopped tickling in order to hug Alec, grinning. "It's good to see you, hermanito."

Little tears of mirth had welled up at the corners of Alec's eyes by the time Antonio stopped,but smiled when the other hugged him. "Good to see you too," he grinned, hugging his cousin back. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yep! I lost track, even...was it two, or three years since the last reunion? Feels like forever!" He squeezed his cousin happily. "You're still skin and bones," he scolded, laughing when he realized how much he sounded like his mother.

Alec flushed a little and half-heartedly smacked the side of Antonio's arm. "Am not! I've grown since the last time you saw me!" he pouted. It was true though. Since their family's last reunion, he'd had a bit of a growth spurt (though not by too much), and the more intense martial arts training he'd been doing left him with a slightly more toned body. Not to mention that his grandparents and occasionally his parents always cooked enough food to feed an army, and the family for days on end.

"Skin. And. Bones," Antonio repeated, punctuating each word with pointed pokes in places healthy-sized people had squishy bits. Alec was not squishy, he was pointy. Not to say that Antonio wasn't pointy, but it was the job of elder relatives to harass younger ones into eating. "And taller is not what I meant, hermanito."

"Ai, yeah, whatever," he grumbled, rolling his eyes before wiggling around again. "Hey, Toni, can you get off me now? You're kind of heavy." Not that he really minded. Antonio was probably not much heavier than he was, but they were kind of seated in an awkward position.

Antonio obligingly moved to sit next Alec instead of on top of him. "Do you know what classes you're in yet? Are you ready for school to start? Have you made any friends? Tellmetellmetellme~" Antonio pestered him, bouncing the mattress.

So this is why he was able to answer Feliks' questions in one go... The blonde and his cousin apparently had the same knack for asking him a string of questions that he was supposed to remember, and answer in the correct order. Sitting up, he leaned forward onto his bent knees and looked idly at the ceiling as he thought up his response. "Haven't gotten my schedule yet, I'm already unpacked and everything so I think I'm okay for school, and I met some people earlier in the common lounge... And you need to start unpacking too before I tell you anything else, Kuya," he smirked, pressing down on the other's bouncing head.

Antonio grinned sheepishly at Alec, ducking his head to escape the hand. "Right, right." He tumbled off the bed and threw open his trunk. "That bureau's mine, I take it," he gestured to the open, empty one at the foot of his bed. The bedsheets were on the top of his stuff, so he reluctantly decided to make the bed first. "Can I get a little help here?" he pouted at his cousin. Sure, he could do it by himself, but it went so much faster with two people...

"Hm...? Yeah, sure," he said a bit grudgingly, getting up to help the other spread the sheets over the bare mattress before adding a "don't think that pout will work on me all the time, by the way."

"What pout~?" Antonio asked innocently. He tucked the fitted sheet over the mattress before shaking out the flat, offering an end to Alec. "So how did you get to the school? Car, plane, train, boat...? It's a long trip for you, isn't it?"

"Uh huh," Alec said, accepting the offered end with a raised eyebrow at the other's supposedly "innocent" tone of voice. "My parents drove me over to the airport and I flew over. I caught a cab that was waiting for me once I got here to drive me to the campus. I guess it was pretty long, but I slept for most of the plane ride so it wasn't too bad." After neatly tucking in the edges of the bed sheet, the smaller male plopped down on the newly made bed and glanced up at the other curiously. "So, how about you? How'd you get here?"

"Ah, about the same...except I took a ...cab to the airport in Madrid, in addition to the cab from the airport to school." It had been a limo, actually. It went unsaid that Antonio's parents was both wealthier and cooler to their son than Alec's parents. Antonio folded his hospital corners a little clumsily, mimicking the maid who had done this to his bed since he was a child.

Alec, fortunately hadn't really noticed Antonio's slight fumble on his words and just nodded, not really paying too much attention. The fact of the matter was that it was partially his cousin's parents fault for his own family's financial struggles in the past, but all that was was like he'd said before - in the past. However, that didn't mean that bringing up the obvious differences in their lifestyles that had resulted from that family feud was a good idea either. "How is Tita and Tito, by the way? I haven't heard anything from them from my parents for a while," he asked, rolling onto his stomach.

(Tita= Aunt
Tito= Uncle)

"They're fine," Antonio said, a little sharply, before sighing. "Well, they're not fine, really. I finally told them I was bisexual and I'm pretty sure they sent me here as punishment. They've barely talked to me since I came out. It's like...they love me, but they listen to the priest too much. They don't love 'the sin,' so they're not sure how to treat 'the sinner.'"

"They sent you here as punishment?" If that was the case, Alec decided that he really didn't want Antonio to know that he chose to go here and had gotten in only because he was on scholarship. If this school was punishment for Antonio, he didn't really want to know what a 'reward' was supposed to be. "I'm sure they'll get over it... It'll probably just take some time." Of course, he himself was not about to go tell his parents that he was bisexual too. He would probably have been kicked out of the house if not for the fact that he was the only child that helped to support the family.

"Well...'punishment' might not be the right word. They don't want me around so the neighbors can find out. I got to pick the school, but it had to be out of the country. I picked this one because I know a few people attending - you included, of course," Antonio smiled.

Alec's cheeks heated up a bit at that last statement, but since looking away or hiding his face would've made the blush more obvious, he just averted eye contact a bit and prayed that his tan was still dark enough to cover the reddening of his cheeks. "I-it was kind of a nice surprise to see that my roommate was someone that I already knew. Which reminds me, how did we end up as roommates? I thought that they picked people at random?"

"Well, yes, it's random. Mostly," Antonio shrugged, looking sheepish. "I didn't want to live with someone I'd never met. I'm sorry I kind of cheated you out of the experience of random rooming...but, uh, if you really want we could probably still get it changed. I just figured this would be better."

So... You set me up so that I would have to be your roommate?" he asked raising an eyebrow. It wasn't that he hated being his roommate, but that didn't mean that Antonio had to know that right at that second. "Why me, though?" The other had said that he knew other people here, so he was naturally curious as to why he would pick his cousin of all people to stay with. Antonio liked that Lovino kid more, didn't he?