Room 2: Alec & Antonio's room

Antonio shrugged. "I've stayed with you before. I know you're pretty clean when you need to be, but don't mind a mess when it doesn't matter. I've known you the longest. Most of the people I thought about living with - there's always something that might mean total war between me and someone. With you...I mean, we had disagreements as kids, but mostly we get along now. And...I guess most of all, I wanted you to know how sorry I am...for being such a shit to you when we were little."

Alec had been nodding as he listened through the first three reasons, but the third one was what wiped the smile from the Asian's face. He had pretty much forgiven Antonio for what he had done, especially after seeing his cousin change so much these past years, but that didn't mean he had forgotten. Just being reminded of it made the Filipino's chest clench painfully as he looked away and buried his face in his arms, not wanting to make eye contact with the other at the moment. "You didn't have to remind me of that..." What Alec did in order to forgive Antonio was convince himself that the Antonio then, and the one standing in front of him now were two completely different people with two completely different pasts. The one now was his Kuya, the one he could rely on and looked up to while the one in the past was this horrendous person who knew nothing but cruelty and how to cause him pain. Being reminded that those two totally different personalities were still the same person brought back the fears he'd had towards the Spaniard even though he mostly knew that Antonio wouldn't hurt him again like he had before. "It's all in the past... Right?"

"Right," Antonio said weakly, hurt by the utter devastation on Alec's face. "Of course it is, hermanito." He smiled, pulling his cousin into a hug. "No one's ever going to hurt you again, alright? Hermano will take care of you." His memories from that time were...fuzzy, he had to admit. He had done a lot of cruel things to a lot of people, he knew that, but mostly what he remembered of his childhood and youth was a lot of boring church services, a lot of moving around the country and the world, and the general feeling that he was an invading alien wherever he went. The discomfort had made him lash out the only way he knew how as a child - with violence. Then, a little later, there was sweet little pouting Lovi, who charmed him so completely. From the day he met the little boy - though he'd initially thought the Italian was a girl, since he was wearing such a cute little frock - Antonio had been unable to refuse him anything.

Alec stiffened almost instinctively at the hug, but he managed to shove that aside and accept the sign of affection for what it was. He would have replied, but what else was there to say? That he believed him? Promises could always be broken, even if they swore on their life or whatever else they thought was valuable, but, for now at least he was certain that Antonio would keep to what he said.

Antonio let Alec go after a moment, kissing his cousin's forehead. "Right. So that's why I chose this school." He smiled and finished making the bed.

Alec flushed again slightly and got up off of the other's bed and instead went back to sit on his own. "Good to know," he smiled back, even though he was still a bit nervous for some reason. The feeling would pass though, so he didn't worry too much about it at that moment and went back to listening to his own music, but kept one of the earbuds out in case the other started talking to him again. While he was at it, he decided that he should probably put a shirt back on now and went searching through his closet for a clean shirt.

Once the bed was made, Antonio flopped down on it with the last bit of his summer homework...a Shakespearean play he had to read in English. He groaned as he started glancing through the words. "I'm going to need a damn dictionary for this," he mumbled. He leafed through his dictionary before groaning again. "Scratch that...I need an Elizabethan English-to-Spanish dictionary. What the hell is up with assigning this book to a class of mostly non-native English speakers?"

"You having trouble with that?" he asked, curious. In the Philippines, they were taught English at a very young age, so Alec was as comfortable with the language as he was with Tagalog.

"It was hard enough to properly learn Spanish, since the family moved around so much when I was younger. I wasn't consistently in a school, much less in a country that required English. And then there's the fact that this isn't even English. I mean..." he started to read, sounding out the difficult words:

SCENE I. Before an alehouse on a heath.

Enter Hostess and SLY
SLY
I'll pheeze you, in faith.
Hostess
A pair of stocks, you rogue!
SLY
Ye are a baggage: the Slys are no rogues; look in
the chronicles; we came in with Richard Conqueror.
Therefore paucas pallabris; let the world slide: sessa!

"...Pheeze? Stocks? What does 'Ye are a baggage' mean? 'Paucus pallabris' is...Latin?" He tossed the book down.

"Uh... Don't know what the heck a pheeze is... Are they talking about stockades, or what? And I think that line means that 'you're being a bother' or something like that... And latin is not my forte..." Antonio wasn't kidding. This book was ridiculous.

"And the whole thing looks like that," Antonio said in disgust. "Maybe there's a...what are they called...a side-by-side analysis and text. I'll look for one online later."

"Sparknotes.com. That's where I went when I was having trouble with those english assignments," he suggested. Alec didn't visit the site that often since he mostly understood his assignments, but when he did have trouble, he'd go on that site for some help.

"Thanks hermanito~" Antonio grinned. "That might help." He started hugging a pillow. "So you're good at English, huh~? That's cool. I'm probably best at math, of all my subjects."

"Ugh... Math isn't one of my strong points..." Alec groaned. Sure, he had gotten a B in the class, but that was because he'd asked for the teacher's help for almost every problem and did a lot of tutoring for it.

Antonio bounced up, grinning. "Well, let me know if you want any help, okay, hermanito~?"

"I will," Alec smiled, returning to his own bed and burying his face in his pillow. There wasn't much left for him to do, so the islander was contemplating just calling it a night and going to bed.

Antonio yawned loudly. "Damn, unpacking is surprisingly tiring." He looked at his trunk and laughed. "Oh, shit, I've barely gotten anything done." He started shoving clothes into the bureau. "After this, I think I'm going to sleep."

By the time Antonio had spoken again, Alec was already fast asleep with his ipod still on with one earbud still playing his music. Though grown, the pinay still tended to curl up into a ball while he slept and had one of his arms curled beneath the pillow like he always did when he was little.

Antonio smiled fondly at Alec when he realized the other was asleep. He finished putting away some more of his things before yawning again and deciding to leave the rest for tomorrow. He pulled the blanket up under Alec's chin before changing into pajamas and climbing into his own bed.

Lovino stood outside of the door of the idiot and Alec's room, shuffling the different books and magazines in his hands, he knocked a few time. Then stodd there waiting.

Toni glanced up at the door, not expecting a caller in his first week at the school. He got out of bed wearing just sleep trousers and no shirt or shoes. Alec was listening to music again, so he probably hadn't even heard the knock. He pulled the door open, smiling when he saw Lovi.

"Hey Lovi~ Come to see me~?"

((note for future reference: the scene with Lovi takes place several days after Toni moves into the dorm))

Alec hadn't heard the knock, but he did turn around when he heard Antonio talking to someone other than himself. "Kuya, who's there at the door?" he questioned before getting up and looking for himself. A slightly surprised, but delighted grin spread on Alec's lips as he saw who their guest was and opened the door wider to let the brunette in. "Lovi, you're here! Come in, come in!" he smiled, ushering the other in and taking the various magazines and such he had brought and placed them on the desk. "Wasn't expecting you for a little while, but I guess that means we can just start earlier, hm?"

Frown in place when Antonio opened the door, his face going bright red at the sight. “WHERE SOME GOD DMAN CLOTHES YOU TOMATO BASTARD!!!!!” Huffs and looks away. “Of course not! Why would I come see an idiot!”

Looking over Antonio’s shoulder, he sorta grinned. “Alec. I brought the magazines I was talking about!” He said happily as the Asian ushered him into the room. “I’m sorry I am over early, Fratello wanted to take a nap and if I stayed I would had napped too. And then you would have to come to my room instead.” Sheepish grin, sits on Alec’s bed and looks at him. “So where do you want to start?”

Antonio scratched his head tiredly, watching Lovi like he'd never seen him before. He yawned. "What's this about?" He didn't even move towards clothes, much less put any on.

"Oh, sorry I forgot to mention this earlier, Kuya. I invited Lovino over so we could start preparations for the club. We're supposed to have something done for a school event and we're trying to decide what we should do for it," Alec quickly explained without looking up as he spread out the magazines for them to look at more easily.