- Chapter 97 - Learning and Loving -
Warnings: Abuse, injuries, blood, burns, crying, anxiety, mentions of death
Modern AU
Third Person POV

Antonio was suddenly aware of all of the pain in his body.

After not being in his body for two days, he wasn't as used to the pain as he had been.

Antonio almost immediately grabs his arms, hissing in pain as he steps back. "What'd you do?" He croaks out.

Spot cringes slightly. "I spoke back to him not knowing what would happen." He answers softly. "Why don't we treat those?" He asks.

"No!" Antonio shouts before he could stop himself. "I'm sorry- no, no, no." He shakes his head quickly. "I'm fine. I gotta get home."

"You can't go home." Albert tells him, looking really worried.

Antonio looks up at him. "Why not?" He snaps.

Albert flinches, stepping back slightly in shock.

He knew and understood why Antonio was defensive, but this was definitely not his idea of the ideal first conversation he wanted to have with his Soulmates.

"Because I did not go through all that trouble to get you out of there for nothing." Spot responds, his teeth gritted. "I can't let you go back there and just sit here and do nothing." He tells him. "It's not rig-" he starts.

"Well it's how it works." Antonio snaps, glaring as he stares into Spot's eyes. "I need to go back. We're all dead if I don't." He tells him.

"But you don't have to." Albert says quietly, deciding to take a softer approach to this. "There's stuff we can do to ensure that he'll never come near you again." He tells Antonio.

A bit of the tension in Antonio left him as he straightened up a bit and looked over at Albert, his glare slightly less strong. "Like what?" He whispers, sounding broken. "I tried running, trust me, but Snyder found me every time and brought me back to him." Antonio looked defeated. "Then, they both beat me."

Jack couldn't stop a gasp from leaving him.

Antonio looks over at him with a slightly dirty look on his face.

"You know Snyder?" Jack whispers, his eyes wide.

Blink and Crutchie's eyes went wide as well.

Antonio looked confused. "Yeah? He was my father's best friend." He informs him. "They'd beat me when they were in the mood or I did something wrong and if my father didn't want to deal with me, he just..." he swallows hard. "...sent me to Snyder." He finishes.

"He was our foster guardian." Blink whispers, gesturing between him, Jack, and Crutchie. "With Al and Tommy, too." He adds.

Antonio squints his eyes at them. "I've seen you before." He whispers. "Sorry, seeing is hard when I'm tired and my vision is blurry."

Albert, Specs, and Cloth seemed to instantly get concerned.

Specs walks into the room and stand in front of Antonio.

Antonio's eyes widen and he immediately steps back when Specs puts his hand up.

Specs' eyes soften. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He tells him softly. "Just follow my finger."

Antonio looks towards the door. "I really don't feel like doing this righ-" he starts.

A dirty look from Spot and Cloth shut him up and he turned back to face Specs.

After a few minutes of Antonio answering Specs' questions about his fingers and following his finger, Specs turned back to the others. "Thankfully," he starts. "He doesn't seem to be concussed, but I think he needs glasses." He informs them.

Spot and Jack nod.

"My father wouldn't ever pay for glasse-" the blonde-haired boy starts.

"Who said your father was paying for them?" Spot asks, looking into Antonio's blue eyes.

Antonio looked confused.

Albert looks at him with a warm smile and a gentle air around him; one they didn't usually see from him. "Why don't we let you sleep and we can treat your injuries while you're asleep?" He suggests. "You won't be in pain that way, and if you don't want to sleep with Spot and I- which we completely understand and will not be mad at you for-" he adds. "-we have an extra bed that you can sleep in." Albert informs him.

Antonio bites his lip, looking away from Albert for a second, before his blue eyes meet Albert's green eyes again. "Are you sure you can stop my father from ever getting me again?" He asks quietly.

Jack felt a really strong want to go beat up anyone who had ever hurt Antonio, especially when looking into his eyes and seeing him this vulnerable.

He could tell by Spot's clenched fists and gritted teeth that Spot felt the same way.

Albert had a soft look on his face. "I promise." He whispers.

Antonio's mouth fell open slightly. "I forgot that word." He mumbles, scratching the back of his head confusedly. "Promise." He whispers to himself.

Albert tilts his head to the side in confusion.

"I speak Italian." Antonio shrugs, holding back a yawn.

Albert notices this. "That's cute, but why don't we get you to sleep and talk about this is the morning?" He asks him.

Antonio still looked slightly conflicted. "I have problems sleeping." He admits quietly. "And usually have... uh... nightmares." He adds hesitantly.

"I can lay in the bed next to yours and hold your hand." Albert suggests. "We don't mind helping you fall asleep if you have a nightmare." He tells him.

Antonio smiles slightly. "Thanks." He mumbles.

Albert smiles.

Later that night

Spot lays down next to Albert, who had been upstairs alone with Antonio for two hours.

The smaller boy had fallen asleep three hours before and they treated his injuries, which were mainly on his chest, stomach, neck, arms, and shoulders, with the only injury below his waist being a twisted ankle.

Albert then laid down on the bed next to Antonio, who was still asleep, and held his hand.

"Hi." Spot whispers, wrapping his arms around Albert's waist.

He heard Albert chuckle. "I've known you for technically less than three days, but really one." He comments.

Still smiling, Spot rolls his eyes. "You love it." He mumbles into Albert's shoulder.

Albert smiles, laying his head down on the pillow. "I do." He whispers.

Spot's smile widens.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Albert spoke up again. "He has soft hands and they're so small." He whispers excitedly. "He's like- perfect."

Spot chuckles. "You're both perfect." He presses a soft kiss to Albert forehead.

Albert blushes.

Spot lays his head down.

It was silent for a few more minutes before, "I'd just like to point out that I've known you for a day and you're already flirting with me. Like bro, I don't blush that easily and then you come along and my face is like, 'oh wow. He's hot and now we're totally in love with him and we're going to show it.' Like come on."

Spot chuckles again.

The next day

Antonio woke up to sun streaming in through the curtains and his Soulmates sleeping in a bed next to him.

He had bandages all over his upper body and his left ankle.

And his hand was in Albert's hand.

Antonio blushes a bit as he sits up.

He cringes slightly in pain. That hurts.

But instead of being a smart child and continuing to rest and not hurt himself further, Antonio flipped the covers off of himself and got up.

It took a moment for him to actually be able to stand, but he eventually got it and started limping downstairs.

Once he got halfway down the stairs, he was picked up. "Hey!"

Jack looked slightly unimpressed as he carried Antonio into the kitchen, while also ignoring the younger boy's protests.

Jack sets Antonio down on a stool in the kitchen by the island and then walks of the other side of the island, across from Antonio, where Hotshot, Red, Blink, Dice, and Specs stood.

Ace and Crutchie sat on either side of Antonio.

Antonio pouts slightly, glaring at Jack.

Ace looks over at Antonio, setting his cup of coffee down. "How'd you even get halfway here?" He asks.

Antonio looks over at him. "Pure stubbornness and determination." He answers. "And practice." He adds. "Once you've had enough beatings, you get used to the pain." He states.

Jack exhales through his teeth as he cleans a mug. "Ain't that a mood and also very sad." He mutters.

Blink points to him from where he sat on the counter, looking tired as he sipped his coffee.

Antonio looks at Jack in confusion. "What's a 'mood'?" He asks.

Hotshot raises an eyebrow at him. "You don't know?" He asks.

Antonio deadpans. "I've been living with an abusive father who sheltered me from the world- in a way- for nine years and this new meaning wasn't around when I was six, of course I don't know." He responds.

Hotshot nods.

Jack stays silent for a moment. "We'll introduce you to the world of teenage slang later, I'm not sure I want to deal with it right now." He tells Antonio.

Antonio nods. He looks more closely at what Jack was doing. "What are you making?" He asks curiously.

"Coffee." Jack answers.

Antonio tilts his head to the side. "Cof-fee?" He repeats.

"You haven't had coffee?" Dice asks Antonio, looking shocked. "How have you lived?" They question.

"Please tell me you know what hot chocolate is." Crutchie looks Antonio in the eyes, silently pleading with him.

Antonio rolls his eyes. "I'm not a heathen, of course I know what hot chocolate is." He responds. "And tea. They're both wonderful." He tells them.

Jack smiles. Someone's warming up to us.

Hotshot sticks his tongue out in disgust, rolling his eyes. "What are you? British?" He mutters sarcastically.

"Nope." Antonio smiles sarcastically at him. "I'm Italian."

Hotshot rolls his eyes.

"Alright," Specs smiles at Antonio. "What do you want for breakfast?" He asks him.

Antonio looked uneasy at the mention of food. "I don't eat that much, just give me a piece of bread and I'll be good for the day." He tells them.

Specs blinks in confusion and slight concern/worry. "No... that's not good for you." He tells him. "At least eat some fruit with that." He says.

Antonio shifts uncomfortably, looking away from him.

Jack opens the fridge, looking inside it for a moment. "We have strawberries, raspberries, and apples." He informs them.

"I think Chris is going shopping with Cloth and Pebbles for more stuff later." Ace informs Jack.

Jack nods, looking from Ace to Antonio.

"What's a raspberry?" Antonio asks quietly.

Jack pulls the container of raspberries out of the fridge, showing them to him.

"They're really good." Specs tells him, popping the lid open and grabbing one. He shows it to Antonio. "Try it." He tells him.

Blink blinks (lol) at Specs, staring at him. It's never that easy to get those open.

Antonio shoots Specs a wary look as he takes the raspberry out of Specs hand, before eating it.

Specs watches him.

"Woah..." Antonio mumbles, looking back at the container. "That tastes... weirdly good?" He tells them.

Multiple people in the room chuckle.

Jack places the container in front of Antonio. "Have some more and I'll try to go find bread." He tells him.

Antonio nods.

Crutchie looks at Antonio. "What's your favorite fruit?" He asks him.

"Blueberries, cause they look like my eyes and taste good." Antonio answers. "But these are close now." He adds.

Crutchie chuckles, keeping a mental note of this.

Weeks later

Antonio hadn't really held Spot's hand that much.

He'd held Albert's a lot, but not really Spot's.

This was probably because Spot scared him more.

And today, today was no different.

(I hope everyone imagined a deep sigh from a narrator in between the 'today's.
*exasperated author eye-roll*
It's what Stage imagined.
Shut up, Race. Quit exposing me...
*raises an eyebrow knowingly*
...please.
There it is. Albert owes me ten bucks.
I dislike you all intensely.)

Especially after Antonio walked into a room to find him yelling.

Something had happened and one of his boys had gotten hurt, so he was scolding them for getting into a fight in the first place and they were being stubborn which was making him increasingly angry.

Of course, Antonio quickly got panicked and fled the room.

Spot and Albert ran after him.

They found him on the bottom bunk he slept in when he stayed over at the Brooklyn Lodge (cause he had the top bunk in the room he now shared with Crutchie in Medda's house).

Antonio was hiding under the covers sobbing.

Albert and Spot share a concerned look.

"Toni," Spot starts softly.

"No, no! I'm sorry!" Antonio screams, grabbing his pillow and hiding behind it, covering his head.

Spot's eyes widen.

Albert quickly climbs onto the bunk. "Hey, hey, it's okay." He whispers soothingly, not wanting to touch him and panic him more. "It's Albert, remember? Al? Albie? Your Soulmate?" He asks.

Antonio opens his eyes slowly, his blue eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry." He chokes out.

"It's okay, you're okay." Albert assures him. "Can I touch you?" He asks.

Antonio quickly shakes his head, laying down again and covering his head with the pillow.

He kept repeating 'I'm sorry'.

Spot frowns, kneeling down next to the bunk and laying his head on the bunk in his arms. "I'm so sorry, Toni. I didn't mean for you to see me yelling and I shouldn't have yelled." He whispers. "Something happened and I got angry. I'm sorry." He explains.

"I'm sorry." Antonio whispers again, his head still under the pillow.

Albert frowns.

Spot frowns. "You're okay, bubby." He whispers. "It's okay. You're okay. We're all gonna be okay." He assures him.

Antonio chokes out a sob, but slides his hand out from under the pillow.

Spot gently touches it and when Antonio doesn'tnt pull away, he holds the smaller hand in his own.

Antonio just let it rest there as he tried to calm himself down.

After a few minutes, they got him to move the pillow a bit so Spot could see his face a bit now.

"Can I rub your back lightly?" Albert asks him softly. "Just trace shapes?"

Antonio barely nodded.

Spot nods to Albert.

And they stayed like that for a while to calm him down until they all fell asleep.

Later again

Antonio was sitting down at table with a few other boys, drawing while he listened absentmindedly to their conversations when something caught his interest.

"This makes no sense to me." JoJo complains, setting his pencil down.

Elmer nods in agreement.

Jack walks into the room.

Antonio looks over at them. "What are you doing?" He asks.

"Math." JoJo answers, rolling his eyes (at the Math, not at Antonio).

That caught Antonio's interest. "Can I see?" He asks.

Jack stops when he hears this, looking over at them.

JoJo shrugs, sliding the paper over to him.

Antonio pulls his glasses out of his bag and puts them on.

They were blue and he liked the racetrack on the inside of them.

Antonio looks up at JoJo and Elmer after about two minutes of looking at the paper. "This is hard?" He asks them.

"What?" JoJo scoff slightly, sharing a look with Elmer. "You know how to do it?" He had a disbelieving look on his face.

Antonio nods, writing something down on the side of the paper. "Carry it, just like that." He slides the paper back over to them.

JoJo looks at that and compares it to Buttons' notes (because JoJo could never fully focus in class and take notes that actually made sense to anyone, so Buttons always let him borrow his notes, knowing about his problem).

Elmer looks up at Antonio. "How'd you-" he starts.

Antonio shrugs, smiling.

Jack smiles slightly from afar, where he was watching. "You've got a Math brain, huh?" He asks, walking over to him.

Antonio looks up at him. He shrugs. "Numbers are easy and fun to experiment with." He states. "You just love them around and they make random equations. And Math is basically all formulas, so if you remember those and the numbers, you can do any of it." Antonio tells Jack.

Jack smiles.

JoJo blinks. "No."

Antonio shrugs again, going back to coloring.

Jack chuckles.

Even more later (lol)

Antonio was sat in Albert's room with his Soulmates.

They were coloring in a couples coloring book, which was slightly difficult because there were three of them, but they made it work and were coloring two side-by-side pages of the book.

"So," Spot starts, focused on coloring the stems of the flowers green. "You like racetracks, Antonio?" He asks.

Antonio beams. "I love them. They're so cool!" He exclaims excitedly. "I went to Sheepshead a few times with i miei genitori while my mom was still alive and it was so cool. The horse I bet on even won! My father was shocked." He tells them, laughing a bit.

Albert smiles.

Spot laughs. "I love proving adults wrong."

Albert and Antonio laugh.

They talked to a few more minutes, mainly about the fact that Albert needed a haircut (in which said redhead brought up the fact that Antonio's hair was soft and Antonio commented on Spot's being greasy).

"And anyway, my hair is not even that greasy-" Spot starts.

"The fact that you have to say 'that' says it all." Albert comments with a knowing smirk.

Antonio giggles.

Spot rolls his eyes.

Antonio looks at Spot's stems. "Are you gonna shade?" He asks.

Spot looks up at him. "No?" He looked confused. "Only Jack and other good artists who know how to shade do that." He comments. "Why?"

Antonio shrugs, looking back at his part of the drawing. "I was just wondering." He responds. "I learned how to shade from books a while ago cause I wanted to learn how to draw a rose. It's the only good thing I can draw cause it taught myself." He explains.

"That's cool." Impressed, Albert looks up at him. "How long did it take you to learn?" He asks.

Antonio shrugs again. "Maybe a day or two?"

Albert and Spot share an impressed look.

"You get more interesting and talented as the days go." Spot mutters.

Antonio blushes.

"Will you draw us a rose?" Albert asks Antonio.

Antonio nods, grabbing a separate piece of paper and a few red and green colored pencils.

It took him barely fifteen minutes to finish and it looked really good, especially for a rushed drawing.

✨Later✨

Antonio laid on the rooftop of Medda's house.

He was laying with Albert and Spot, but Albert was asleep.

Antonio was in the process of being fostered by Medda and getting his father in jail for good.

His father's trial was the next day.

Antonio was nervous, yeah, but Spot, Albert, and the others had stuck with him the whole time and were promising that the outcome would be worth it. That was why he was so calm at the moment.

That and the fact that his Soulmates are wonderful and calming and also played with his hair for a while, so he wasn't fully awake at the moment either.

Medda had gotten him a therapist, glasses, and signed up in the school that his 'brothers' in Manhattan went to.

Brothers.

They all called themselves that and they called him their little brother.

It was weird to him; he'd never been a brother before.

He didn't know for sure if he liked it or not, but he liked having them around him.

Antonio was also almost positive that Medda had a few tests (for physical health and mental and just his brain) scheduled for him.

He didn't mind.

He was glad she cared.

Spot taps his head. "What are you thinking about that in that beautiful head?" He asks him.

Antonio blushes. "Stars and life." He answers.

Spot raises an eyebrow at him. "Stars?" He asks.

Antonio nods. "There's a bunch of useless and random star facts floating around my head that I learned." He informs him.

Spot nods. "Tell me some." He states.

Antonio looks at him. "Are you sure?" He asks. "I might bore yo-" he starts.

Spot smiles at him. "You aren't gonna bore me. Just tell me." He states.

Antonio shrugs. "Do I just pick the first random one that pops up in my mind?" He asks.

Spot shrugs in response. "Or just a random one." He answers, playing with Albert's hair.

(A/N, incase you were wondering, no, Albert has not gotten his hair cut yet.)

"My favorite is this one; even though we associate red with hot and blue with cold, the hottest stars are blue and the coldest stars are red." Antonio informs Spot. A black body, like a star, absorbs 100% of all electromagnetic radiation that falls on it, whereas other things don't. Like, if a light shines through a window, and onto a brick oven, with the interior painted black, it's absorbed, but none is reflected on the outside of the oven." He explains. "With stars, it absorbs all radiant energy that hits it, but it also radiates much more energy back into space than it had originally absorbed." Antonio finishes.

(A/N, this is the first star fact I included in one of my books (bonus points to anyone who knows what book and even what chapter it's in) and it's definitely my favorite :)

Spot was silent for a moment to let this sink in, before he nods. "That's pretty cool." He states.

Antonio bites back a smile. "You think it's cool, too?" He asks.

Spot chuckles, nodding. "Go on." He tells him.

Antonio beams. "The next on; did you know that every star you see in the night sky is bigger and brighter than our sun?" He asks.

Spot shakes his head. "I did not."

"They are. Of the 5,000 or so stars that are brighter than magnitude 6, only about a handful of the very faint stars are about the same size and brightness of our sun." Antonio informs him. "And the rest are al bigger and brighter." He adds. "Of the 500 or so that are brighter than the 4th magnitude- which includes essentially every star visible to the naked eye from an urban location- all are essentially bigger and brighter than our sun, most of them by a large percentage." He explains. "Of the brightest 50 stars visible to the human eye from Earth, the least naturally bright is Alpha Centauri, which is still more than 1.5 times brighter than our sun and can't be seen easily from most of the Northern Hemisphere." Antonio finishes.

Spot blinks. "How do you process that so easily?" He mutters.

"Are you a robot?" Albert mumbles tiredly, his eyes closed.

Antonio laughs. "No-" he starts.

"He's perfect enough to be a robot." Spot mutters.

Antonio blushes.

Spot smirks.

"I'm not a robot." Antonio continues. "I guess my brain just processes things this way when I'm that interested." He explains.

Albert and Spot nod.

Spot presses a soft kiss to Albert's forehead, still playing with his hair. "Sleep, lovey." He whispers.

"Nooo..." Albert whines softly. "I want to hear more... more star facts." He whispers groggily.

Spot looks up, smiling when he notices Race's beaming face looking away from them as he tried to hide his smile.

Spot chuckles. They're both just amazing.

3964 Words
Wow, I feel like these were some of my favorite one-shots lol. They were so cuteee (at least to me lol).

Also, keep in mind that this was written and 'edited' between 11 and 2:50am. If it's not good at points, I'm sorry.