Room 2: Alec & Antonio's room

Alec blinked and looked up from his books when he heard the door open. "Kuya! Are you okay? " he asked, worry apparent in the pinoy's voice as he climbed out of bed to meet his cousin at the door. "You were gone for a long time..." He almost added in the little part where he was about to go out and look for him, but that might have appeared to be a little much so he left that little comment out.

Antonio nodded distractedly. "I just needed to..." he realized his hands were still bleeding. He thought. There was a first aid kit...he knew the maid had packed one...he moved to his trunk and pulled one of the last lingering unpacked items out. The little box had all the medical supplies a small clinic would need for a month, near as Antonio could tell. He cleaned his knuckles again before wrapping them with gauze and bandages.

He didn't talk. He didn't really want to talk. He wasn't sure he really wanted to be here, in this room, with Alec.

How odd, he thought, that a few days ago I thought nothing would make me want to cause a problem, that he was the perfect choice for a roommate. Maybe I should have roomed with Gilbert instead.

When Alec saw Antonio pull out the medical supplies as well as the other's still bleeding knuckles, a saddened frown instantly started forming on his face as he reached out to take the bandages from the Spaniard's hands. "Kuya..." Alec didn't say anything other than that soft murmured term of endearment and started dressing the other's wounds more expertly. He wouldn't ask why Antonio had done this to himself since he very well knew the reason, and he wouldn't ask what his cousin had done to receive these injuries since it didn't exactly take a brain surgeon to figure that out. However, he did feel bad that what he had done with Lovino made Antonio decide to go out of his way to hurt himself.

Even if deep down he still loathed Antonio for what he had done to him in the past, Kuya Toni was still family, and not to mention that Alec wouldn't be what he was now if not for the other's influence, good or bad. It wouldn't be a lie if Alec said that he really did love his cousin. Years later when it was Antonio being bullied, Alec did worry for him. As a child, he'd thought of Antonio as some sort of invulnerable, strong-willed person and seeing him in pain at the hands of others struck a nerve in him.

If anything Alec was the only one who had the right to make his cousin suffer. With all that he had gone through at that bastard's hands, he had the right to be the one to punish the Spaniard and demand atonement. As much as he hated to admit it, Alec knew he wasn't strong, physically anyways. And with physical torture not being an option, thoroughly fucking with Antonio's mind was the last thing that Alec could resort to.

So if Lovino, someone who had suffered just as much as he had by the Spaniard's hands, were to ask what Alec's real feelings towards Antonio were, he would say this.

I love him. I don't think I would be able to stand it if someone else were to hurt him intentionally. I mean, I wouldn't be who I am today if he hadn't shown up in my life. However, it's also for that very reason that I hate him more than anything else and I know I wouldn't hesitate to destroy him myself...

Antonio glanced up at Alec as the other started bandaging his hands. "Gracias," he mumbled, not meeting Alec's eyes.

He started to speak. "I used to be really angry. Lovino...he made me love the world again, made me appreciate that life could be beautiful, that I still had a lot of wonderful things going for me. Even though he moved away, I held onto that feeling. Today was the first time in many years where I felt a bottomless anger...an anger I couldn't explain, couldn't rationalize having been provoked. It was foolish. And it made me want to break my promise to you. I'm not going to do that." He touched Alec's face. "You're my cousin. You're family. You have no idea how much that means to me now."

Alec appeared a tad frightened and looked up, trying to make eye contact with Antonio when he said that he wanted to break their promise, but soon calmed and smiled while leaning a little into the other's touch. "Te amo, Kuya... No lo olvides lo tenemos ahora, de acuerdo?" Even though he rarely spoke it because of the memories it brought back, Alec still remembered the language he was taught by Antonio's family and this seemed a good a time as any to use it again.

(("I love you, Kuya... Don't forget what we have now, okay?"))

Antonio smiled back, relaxing. "Hermanito...what would I do without you?" he asked in English. He leaned in until their foreheads touched. "I wish I could have started clean with you. But you make me proud...you're strong and yet kind and helpful..." he pulled back a little. "In less than a week you've made good friends with Lovi...I'm glad, but also..." he frowned. "It makes me feel strange. Not how I would like to feel - happy that my cousin makes friends, glad that Lovi is settling in well...he usually has trouble letting people in...but something else. I don't know what it is. Even if I knew the name in Spanish, I don't know that I could repeat it in English."

He shook his head. "No matter. It's almost dinner time...we should go to the mess hall."

"Strange? Strange how?" he asked quietly, his expression mimicking Antonio's. However, he didn't question any further when the other pretty much closed any further discussion on the topic. Besides, it's not like he didn't already know the answer.

"I guess we should. Are you okay with eating with me today, or..." he trailed off, thinking that if Antonio didn't want to sit with him, he could always go and sit with Lovino or Feliks or something.

Antonio laughed a little. "Don't be silly...of course I'll eat with you, hermanito. You say silly things sometimes~"

Alec smiled and let out a small chuckle of his own. "Yeah, well... I just don't like seeing you upset, Kuya." Giving the older male a quick hug, Alec then went back over to his side of the room and put some socks and shoes on to make their way down to the Mess Hall.

Antonio changed into a clean shirt and walked to dinner with his cousin. After all the stress of the day, it was surprisingly calming.