Fic: Tomates y Amor-- Chapter 2: Part of Your World
Title: Tomates y Amor-- Chapter 2: Part of Your World
Author: cutthroatpixie
Character(s) or Pairing(s): (this chapter) Romano, Belgium, Fem!Spain. Overall fic will eventually be some form of Spain/Romano.
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Warnings: Human names. Ridiculousness.
Summary: Far, far away, beyond the borders of dreams and wishes, just past where fantasies live, there sat a quiet, peaceful little kingdom. In a not so far, far away land, closer to where dreams go to die, sat a very disgruntled Italian man. This is the story of how these two realities came to meet.
Notes: Edmée = Belgium. I've been fucking around with with this chapter for a long time and I'm not entirely happy with it, but I really wanted to post because it's been awhile. So I hope you all like it. :)
Prologue
Chapter 1
It was 5:00 PM on the dot and Lovino was just getting off work. The call center he worked in was still alive with activity -- overachievers working extra hours in hopes of getting a raise, unfortunate souls showing up for the shift after his-- but Lovino had had enough. He could only take so many hours of attempting to pretend to be something close to nice while dissatisfied morons yelled at him about things he had nothing to do with (actually, he couldn't take any amount of that bullshit some days, and that's why he was currently on his second of three warnings even though he'd only been employed for two months). Luckily for him (and for any and all people who intended to call in that weekend), it was Friday and he was done for the week.
"Hey, Lovino, wait up!"
He whipped around, eyes settling on a blonde woman quickly making her way toward him. Ever the gentleman for pretty ladies who weren't yelling at him from the safety of a phone line, he waited, despite the fact that he'd much rather rush home as quickly as possible. "Did you need something?"
"A few of us are going out for drinks, you want to come?"
He glanced over behind her at the small group of men and women chatting excitedly amongst one another and immediately shook his head. He had to half-listen to overly cheerful morons all day long while they did their best to serve idiot customers, he didn't want to spend his leisure time with them as well. "Eh, sorry. I'm busy tonight, Edmée."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you pencil in 'sit around and mope' for every Friday evening or something?" Two other women snickered and Lovino was ashamed to feel a warm blush of embarrassment spread over his face.
"I'll see you on Monday," he mumbled, turning around and heading off toward his apartment.
"Clear your schedule for next Friday, I'm not taking no for an answer!"
Lovino wasn't too worried about his co-worker's words-- she said the same thing every Friday, and every Friday he got off the hook with a flimsy excuse and some minor teasing.
His post-work ritual done with, he set off for the apartment he shared with his brother. The streets were buzzing with life, people rushing by every which way, cars dashing by, taunting Lovino as he pulled his coat tighter around himself and made his way home as fast as possible.
---
An unfamiliar, unpleasing sort of noise escaped Antonia's soft red lips as she slowly woke up from what seemed like a nightmare. So used to singing and laughing, whatever the sound was seemed foreign to her ears, but the oddity was soon forgotten when she realised she was not awaking in her bed, nor was she laying under the vines of a tomato plant, but instead she saw nothing but darkness, felt nothing but wet, clammy, hard ground beneath her. She quickly stood up, looking around for any sign of where she might be. Her slippered feet made a sloshing noise as she stepped forward, hands reaching out in hopes of finding something to guide her way.
She whistled, a soft tune she so often used to call upon the birds that lived near her cottage, but curiously, there was no answer.
"Where am I...?" she said to herself, looking up just in time to see a faint sliver of light above. She wrinkled her brow in confusion and it took her quite a few moments to remember what had happened. "Oh!" she cried out. "I'm must be at the bottom of that well I fell down!"
Keeping an eye on the light, her blind groping around was soon rewarded with a ladder beneath her fingertips, and she carefully made her way up. She smiled happily when she reached the top, and though the well appeared to have been closed off, she'd spent many years working in a field and doing repairs on her home, so she had little trouble pushing the cover aside.
"I hope I didn't scare that old woman when I fe--"
The old woman was gone.
The well was gone.
Everything was gone. Not just gone, but replaced with an entirely new sort of world Antonia had never seen, never even imagined, before.
---
"Fuck fuck, fucking fuck."
Lovino was sitting on the stoop outside his apartment building, throwing stray rocks out into the street and cursing his stupid, miserable, unlucky life, as well as his extra stupid brother who apparently didn't know how to use a phone.
He dug through his pocket for what felt like the billionth time in the last half hour and checked through his backpack for the billion-and-first time, but it was all in vain. He'd forgotten his keys, Feliciano was nowhere to be found, and nobody else seemed to be coming in or out of the building.
"This couldn't be more stupid," he mumbled, stretching out on the front steps to his building.
A stray rain drop fell on his nose and before he knew it, it was followed by hell knows how many more.
Lovino groaned and attempted to take cover in the doorway, banging his head back against the cold, wooden door. "Why me."
---
Lovino had been sitting outside so long he'd lost all track of time (it'd been 45 minutes) when he was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. making his way to the back of the building, he quickly found the balcony of his third-story apartment. The last time he'd climbed in through a window, admittedly, it'd been into his ground-level room back when he still lived with his grandpa... but this was just two more stories, it couldn't be that hard, right?
Apparently it was.
And apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd had a "brilliant" idea that day.
"Ow!" he yelped as soon as his lungs has managed to capture enough air after being temporarily crushed by a woman falling from the sky/ "What the fu-- who the he-- ow."
"I am so sorry! Are you alright? I didn't mean to fall on you!" Since her fall had been broken (by Lovino), the strange, falling woman appeared to be unscathed, and she promptly got up and tugged Lovino along with her. Upon further inspection, Lovino noticed she was quite beautiful. Upon more intelligent inspection, he realised she was probably insane, or drunk (most likely both), as she was standing outside his apartment building. At night. In the rain. Wearing a wedding dress.
"Uh..."
"I was just trying to get back to the tomato field," she said, as if that explained everything. "And I saw those tomatoes up there, but then I couldn't reach them..."
Definitely drunk.
"That's my balcony, lady, not your stupid tomato field" Though it was kind of cool if she actually had a whole tomato field. But Lovino really doubted that, in this city.
"Silly me, then." She shrugged at him, a bright smile on her lips. It was as if she saw absolutely nothing wrong with this situation. "They do look really good, though."
"Huh?"
"The tomatoes! You must take really good care of them."
"I'd have to be a dumbass not to. What kind of idiot doesn't take good care of their tomato plants?" His brother, actually. And there was that one year... but that really was not his fault, okay? "...What the hell are you doing?"
The woman looked down from her second climbing endeavour and smiled at him. "Trying to get to the tomatoes again?"
The rain had ceased, but a chill ran through the air and Lovino was soaked, so he decided he might as well go with this for now. "There's a set of keys on the table inside the house. Toss them down if you manage to get up there, would you?"
Fortunately for Lovino’s lungs, the woman (whose name was apparently I’m-Antonia-it’s-so-nice-to-meet-you-do-you-like-tomatoes-of-course-you-do-oh-wow-your-house-is-messy!) was much more successful during her second attempt at breaking into his house than she’d been initially. Half an hour later, his wet clothes were taking up space on the laundry room floor, a warm cup of coffee was in his hands, and a very soaked, very crazy woman was stealing his tomatoes.
“You going to sit around here all night stealing my shit, or should I call you a cab?”
“Cab?”
“A taxi. So you can go home.” He assumed she had a home, anyway, since he’d never met a homeless person who ran around in what looked like a designer wedding dress.
“I really don’t know if you could take me that far, I’m not exactly sure how I ended up here.” She didn’t sound too upset about apparently being ridiculously lost, more thoughtful than anything. In fact, she apparently decided to end the conversation there, and skipped towards the front door. Lovino had no idea how to react to this woman, and so he watched as she took the two umbrellas by the front door, some plastic wrap from the kitchen, and a sewing kit (that he definitely did not own, for the record) outside to set up a little tent for the tomato plants that were once again being drowned with rain. A soft tune drifted in through the slightly open balcony door, and if Lovino didn’t know any better, he’d have sworn the plants suddenly started to bloom right before his eyes, looking far more healthy than they had before.
“…Whatever. I’m ordering a pizza.”
Chapter 3
Author: cutthroatpixie
Character(s) or Pairing(s): (this chapter) Romano, Belgium, Fem!Spain. Overall fic will eventually be some form of Spain/Romano.
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Warnings: Human names. Ridiculousness.
Summary: Far, far away, beyond the borders of dreams and wishes, just past where fantasies live, there sat a quiet, peaceful little kingdom. In a not so far, far away land, closer to where dreams go to die, sat a very disgruntled Italian man. This is the story of how these two realities came to meet.
Notes: Edmée = Belgium. I've been fucking around with with this chapter for a long time and I'm not entirely happy with it, but I really wanted to post because it's been awhile. So I hope you all like it. :)
Prologue
Chapter 1
It was 5:00 PM on the dot and Lovino was just getting off work. The call center he worked in was still alive with activity -- overachievers working extra hours in hopes of getting a raise, unfortunate souls showing up for the shift after his-- but Lovino had had enough. He could only take so many hours of attempting to pretend to be something close to nice while dissatisfied morons yelled at him about things he had nothing to do with (actually, he couldn't take any amount of that bullshit some days, and that's why he was currently on his second of three warnings even though he'd only been employed for two months). Luckily for him (and for any and all people who intended to call in that weekend), it was Friday and he was done for the week.
"Hey, Lovino, wait up!"
He whipped around, eyes settling on a blonde woman quickly making her way toward him. Ever the gentleman for pretty ladies who weren't yelling at him from the safety of a phone line, he waited, despite the fact that he'd much rather rush home as quickly as possible. "Did you need something?"
"A few of us are going out for drinks, you want to come?"
He glanced over behind her at the small group of men and women chatting excitedly amongst one another and immediately shook his head. He had to half-listen to overly cheerful morons all day long while they did their best to serve idiot customers, he didn't want to spend his leisure time with them as well. "Eh, sorry. I'm busy tonight, Edmée."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you pencil in 'sit around and mope' for every Friday evening or something?" Two other women snickered and Lovino was ashamed to feel a warm blush of embarrassment spread over his face.
"I'll see you on Monday," he mumbled, turning around and heading off toward his apartment.
"Clear your schedule for next Friday, I'm not taking no for an answer!"
Lovino wasn't too worried about his co-worker's words-- she said the same thing every Friday, and every Friday he got off the hook with a flimsy excuse and some minor teasing.
His post-work ritual done with, he set off for the apartment he shared with his brother. The streets were buzzing with life, people rushing by every which way, cars dashing by, taunting Lovino as he pulled his coat tighter around himself and made his way home as fast as possible.
---
An unfamiliar, unpleasing sort of noise escaped Antonia's soft red lips as she slowly woke up from what seemed like a nightmare. So used to singing and laughing, whatever the sound was seemed foreign to her ears, but the oddity was soon forgotten when she realised she was not awaking in her bed, nor was she laying under the vines of a tomato plant, but instead she saw nothing but darkness, felt nothing but wet, clammy, hard ground beneath her. She quickly stood up, looking around for any sign of where she might be. Her slippered feet made a sloshing noise as she stepped forward, hands reaching out in hopes of finding something to guide her way.
She whistled, a soft tune she so often used to call upon the birds that lived near her cottage, but curiously, there was no answer.
"Where am I...?" she said to herself, looking up just in time to see a faint sliver of light above. She wrinkled her brow in confusion and it took her quite a few moments to remember what had happened. "Oh!" she cried out. "I'm must be at the bottom of that well I fell down!"
Keeping an eye on the light, her blind groping around was soon rewarded with a ladder beneath her fingertips, and she carefully made her way up. She smiled happily when she reached the top, and though the well appeared to have been closed off, she'd spent many years working in a field and doing repairs on her home, so she had little trouble pushing the cover aside.
"I hope I didn't scare that old woman when I fe--"
The old woman was gone.
The well was gone.
Everything was gone. Not just gone, but replaced with an entirely new sort of world Antonia had never seen, never even imagined, before.
---
"Fuck fuck, fucking fuck."
Lovino was sitting on the stoop outside his apartment building, throwing stray rocks out into the street and cursing his stupid, miserable, unlucky life, as well as his extra stupid brother who apparently didn't know how to use a phone.
He dug through his pocket for what felt like the billionth time in the last half hour and checked through his backpack for the billion-and-first time, but it was all in vain. He'd forgotten his keys, Feliciano was nowhere to be found, and nobody else seemed to be coming in or out of the building.
"This couldn't be more stupid," he mumbled, stretching out on the front steps to his building.
A stray rain drop fell on his nose and before he knew it, it was followed by hell knows how many more.
Lovino groaned and attempted to take cover in the doorway, banging his head back against the cold, wooden door. "Why me."
---
Lovino had been sitting outside so long he'd lost all track of time (it'd been 45 minutes) when he was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. making his way to the back of the building, he quickly found the balcony of his third-story apartment. The last time he'd climbed in through a window, admittedly, it'd been into his ground-level room back when he still lived with his grandpa... but this was just two more stories, it couldn't be that hard, right?
Apparently it was.
And apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd had a "brilliant" idea that day.
"Ow!" he yelped as soon as his lungs has managed to capture enough air after being temporarily crushed by a woman falling from the sky/ "What the fu-- who the he-- ow."
"I am so sorry! Are you alright? I didn't mean to fall on you!" Since her fall had been broken (by Lovino), the strange, falling woman appeared to be unscathed, and she promptly got up and tugged Lovino along with her. Upon further inspection, Lovino noticed she was quite beautiful. Upon more intelligent inspection, he realised she was probably insane, or drunk (most likely both), as she was standing outside his apartment building. At night. In the rain. Wearing a wedding dress.
"Uh..."
"I was just trying to get back to the tomato field," she said, as if that explained everything. "And I saw those tomatoes up there, but then I couldn't reach them..."
Definitely drunk.
"That's my balcony, lady, not your stupid tomato field" Though it was kind of cool if she actually had a whole tomato field. But Lovino really doubted that, in this city.
"Silly me, then." She shrugged at him, a bright smile on her lips. It was as if she saw absolutely nothing wrong with this situation. "They do look really good, though."
"Huh?"
"The tomatoes! You must take really good care of them."
"I'd have to be a dumbass not to. What kind of idiot doesn't take good care of their tomato plants?" His brother, actually. And there was that one year... but that really was not his fault, okay? "...What the hell are you doing?"
The woman looked down from her second climbing endeavour and smiled at him. "Trying to get to the tomatoes again?"
The rain had ceased, but a chill ran through the air and Lovino was soaked, so he decided he might as well go with this for now. "There's a set of keys on the table inside the house. Toss them down if you manage to get up there, would you?"
Fortunately for Lovino’s lungs, the woman (whose name was apparently I’m-Antonia-it’s-so-nice-to-meet-you-do-you-like-tomatoes-of-course-you-do-oh-wow-your-house-is-messy!) was much more successful during her second attempt at breaking into his house than she’d been initially. Half an hour later, his wet clothes were taking up space on the laundry room floor, a warm cup of coffee was in his hands, and a very soaked, very crazy woman was stealing his tomatoes.
“You going to sit around here all night stealing my shit, or should I call you a cab?”
“Cab?”
“A taxi. So you can go home.” He assumed she had a home, anyway, since he’d never met a homeless person who ran around in what looked like a designer wedding dress.
“I really don’t know if you could take me that far, I’m not exactly sure how I ended up here.” She didn’t sound too upset about apparently being ridiculously lost, more thoughtful than anything. In fact, she apparently decided to end the conversation there, and skipped towards the front door. Lovino had no idea how to react to this woman, and so he watched as she took the two umbrellas by the front door, some plastic wrap from the kitchen, and a sewing kit (that he definitely did not own, for the record) outside to set up a little tent for the tomato plants that were once again being drowned with rain. A soft tune drifted in through the slightly open balcony door, and if Lovino didn’t know any better, he’d have sworn the plants suddenly started to bloom right before his eyes, looking far more healthy than they had before.
“…Whatever. I’m ordering a pizza.”
Chapter 3