“Well, I guess it’s like… Rosa, rosae, ro…sae? Uh, rosam... Something like that. Wait, I forgot one, didn’t I?” The Spanish boy scratched his head sheepishly. “There’s – no, wait, I know it! – nominative, genitive, accusative, ablative… And then some… Okay, maybe I don’t really know the conjugations.”
Lovino leant forward. “How the hell do you translate stuff if you don’t know basic conjugations?”
“I just translate the words in a text and see if I can make a sentence out of them..?” Antonio replied. He chuckled nervously when Lovino began desperately clawing at his own hair, groaning exaggeratedly. “Wrong answer?”
“Yes!” the Italian answered. He looked at Antonio. “You’re even stupider than I thought you were! You’ve been studying Latin for over four years; you should at least know the names of the fucking conjugations!”
“At least we found the first subject to touch upon, right?” Another nervous chuckle escaped his throat.
Lovino promptly let his head fall down on the desk. “I should’ve asked way more money.” --- Despite the rocky start, the two students actually got some work done during the 90 minutes they had left. Antonio studied conjugations and their functions until he knew them by heart. Lovino was still snobby, but rightly proud of what he’d accomplished so far. Antonio thought it was also because of the money he would receive later, but that was only natural, he reasoned. He was happy that someone could help him though.
“Well,” the Italian said when the hands of the clock began nearing five, “I suppose your idiot brain has done enough work for today. I don’t think it can handle any more thinking above its level.”
Antonio raised his eyebrows without looking at Lovino. “Was that an insult?” He was trying to push his books into his backpack.
“Yeah, it was. I think you need a lesson in those as well. I’ve been doing nothing but insulting you for the past two hours, and I don’t think you’ve noticed.”
“Well, you insult people a lot… So it can’t mean you really hate me, right?” He finally succeeded in stuffing his Latin books into his bag, although he was afraid he’d crumpled his maths notes enough to make them unreadable. Then he looked up to Lovino, who blinked at him. “I think it’s time to go home.”
The Spanish boy nodded, explaining that he had to take three buses to get home and that it would take two hours now that he’d go during the rush hour. “Normally, it takes about 80 minutes, but the bus does run late a lot of th—”
“Not interested, idiot!”
Antonio shut up. Then he smiled. “Say, Lovino?” The Italian didn’t react, only standing up, retrieving his stuff and starting to walk to the door. “Lovino,” Antonio tried again, following his classmate, “I actually don’t know anything about you. Tell me something! You’ve got two brothers, right? Where do you guys live?”
The Italian opened the door. He let Antonio through without a word and slammed the door shut. Antonio flinched. Maybe Lovino didn’t like it when he was asked things about his personal life, although he couldn’t quite grasp why that would be. The Spaniard had met the boy’s twin brother some times. He didn’t share many classes with the other Italian, but occasionally met up with him in music lessons. From what he’d gathered, he could say that Lovino and his brother were completely different. There apparently was a third Vargas brother, but he went to a different school in the area. Antonio only knew the twin brother’s name; Feliciano. The Spanish student didn’t know why Lovino wouldn’t want to talk about his life. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about it. It was different for a lot of other students at their World Academy.
Maybe that was it, Antonio thought. Then Lovino broke his train of thought once again.
“Are you going to stand there all day, bastard?” he snarled. “The cleaning ladies are coming in a few, if you don’t move they’re gonna sweep you up, mark my words.”
“Sorry, got distracted again. Lead the way, Vino.”
“Don’t call me Vino!”
“Lovi, then?”
“Lovino!”
“Oh, I know! What about Lolo?!”
“Would you shut the fuck up already?! My name is Lovino Vargas, thank you very much.”
“Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll call you Lovino alright.”
The two had reached the wardrobe and both started pulling on their coats. Lovino wound an expensive-looking scarf around his neck and buttoned up his coat. Then he told Antonio, “Next lesson on Friday. Be on time or else I’m leaving you and still letting you pay.”
Antonio smiled in surprise. “I thought you’d give up on me, really.”
Lovino stuck his chin in the air decisively. “A Vargas does not simply give up. And if it doesn’t work out, quaere modum alium. That’s our family’s motto. Antonio?”
“That’s, ah… An imperative, and then, two accusatives. ‘Seek another way’?”
“Good. Maybe I won’t have to seek another way after all.” With that, the Italian picked up his shoulder bag and marched out the school.
Antonio smiled to himself. This could work out in his favour in the end. Maybe he’d earn a new friend. Moreover, the fact that he’d only once gone out with a boy, and usually stuck to girls, didn’t mean that he could not see that Lovino was very attractive. It wasn’t a punishment to spend time with him, even if he was probably ramrod straight.
…And of course, his Latin would improve.
[If there are any mistakes, I take the full blame. It's past midnight. I have no idea if that Latin for Lovino's family motto was right. Again, it's past midnight. I don't know if it's alright like this... The amount of actual Latin, I mean. I tried to keep it down a bit, since, well, this is not school. What more... Oh, yes. Well, Antonio is bisexual, let's hope for him that Lovino is gay, the Vargas brothers are twins because I wanted them to be in the same year, the third brother is Seborga, and I'm tired. Goodnight, and thanks for all the comments, anons! ♥]
I think I caught this like, really close after you posted it. Also, as of this posting, it is 12:01 in my area... I'm assuming you are not from the US, anon? Because I'm on the east coast! Fun things :)
Anyway! I was super excited to see that this updated. I have to say I sympathize with Spain, that after four years of Latin I have been struggling with some basic things. However, I took four years of Latin 6 years ago. So I think I have more of an excuse.
I like how everything is flowing so far, starting with the first lesson and whatnot. The only thing is that I feel like Lovino is really, really cold to Antonio. I know he's a jerk to him most of the time but he gave like, 0 inkling that he isn't actually always a jerk? But then again this is only the second part so obviously you haven't had much time to develop their characters. So I'm just gonna shut up and enjoy the show :)
Nah, I'm on the other side of the Atlantic, in the Netherlands. :)
Bah, yeah, I still can't do conjugations and I'm starting the fifth year now. But I think I'll have to study them a bit more, since I actually want to study classical languages at university in less than two years...
I didn't really feel like Lovino was too much of a jerk... In fact, by my standards, he's been pretty nice so far. xD I'd be pissed off if someone forgot the first appointment we made, so I think it's sort of justifiable. He'll warm up to Antonio in the future. :) Now I'm off to study my German. Happy you like it!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Aut disce aut discede [2b/?]
(Anonymous) 2012-12-01 12:40 am (UTC)(link)Lovino leant forward. “How the hell do you translate stuff if you don’t know basic conjugations?”
“I just translate the words in a text and see if I can make a sentence out of them..?” Antonio replied. He chuckled nervously when Lovino began desperately clawing at his own hair, groaning exaggeratedly. “Wrong answer?”
“Yes!” the Italian answered. He looked at Antonio. “You’re even stupider than I thought you were! You’ve been studying Latin for over four years; you should at least know the names of the fucking conjugations!”
“At least we found the first subject to touch upon, right?” Another nervous chuckle escaped his throat.
Lovino promptly let his head fall down on the desk. “I should’ve asked way more money.”
---
Despite the rocky start, the two students actually got some work done during the 90 minutes they had left. Antonio studied conjugations and their functions until he knew them by heart. Lovino was still snobby, but rightly proud of what he’d accomplished so far. Antonio thought it was also because of the money he would receive later, but that was only natural, he reasoned. He was happy that someone could help him though.
“Well,” the Italian said when the hands of the clock began nearing five, “I suppose your idiot brain has done enough work for today. I don’t think it can handle any more thinking above its level.”
Antonio raised his eyebrows without looking at Lovino. “Was that an insult?” He was trying to push his books into his backpack.
“Yeah, it was. I think you need a lesson in those as well. I’ve been doing nothing but insulting you for the past two hours, and I don’t think you’ve noticed.”
“Well, you insult people a lot… So it can’t mean you really hate me, right?” He finally succeeded in stuffing his Latin books into his bag, although he was afraid he’d crumpled his maths notes enough to make them unreadable. Then he looked up to Lovino, who blinked at him. “I think it’s time to go home.”
The Spanish boy nodded, explaining that he had to take three buses to get home and that it would take two hours now that he’d go during the rush hour. “Normally, it takes about 80 minutes, but the bus does run late a lot of th—”
“Not interested, idiot!”
Antonio shut up. Then he smiled. “Say, Lovino?” The Italian didn’t react, only standing up, retrieving his stuff and starting to walk to the door. “Lovino,” Antonio tried again, following his classmate, “I actually don’t know anything about you. Tell me something! You’ve got two brothers, right? Where do you guys live?”
The Italian opened the door. He let Antonio through without a word and slammed the door shut. Antonio flinched. Maybe Lovino didn’t like it when he was asked things about his personal life, although he couldn’t quite grasp why that would be. The Spaniard had met the boy’s twin brother some times. He didn’t share many classes with the other Italian, but occasionally met up with him in music lessons. From what he’d gathered, he could say that Lovino and his brother were completely different. There apparently was a third Vargas brother, but he went to a different school in the area. Antonio only knew the twin brother’s name; Feliciano. The Spanish student didn’t know why Lovino wouldn’t want to talk about his life. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about it. It was different for a lot of other students at their World Academy.
Maybe that was it, Antonio thought. Then Lovino broke his train of thought once again.
“Are you going to stand there all day, bastard?” he snarled. “The cleaning ladies are coming in a few, if you don’t move they’re gonna sweep you up, mark my words.”
“Sorry, got distracted again. Lead the way, Vino.”
“Don’t call me Vino!”
“Lovi, then?”
“Lovino!”
“Oh, I know! What about Lolo?!”
“Would you shut the fuck up already?! My name is Lovino Vargas, thank you very much.”
“Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll call you Lovino alright.”
“You better.”
Aut disce aut discede [2c/?]
(Anonymous) 2012-12-01 12:46 am (UTC)(link)Antonio smiled in surprise. “I thought you’d give up on me, really.”
Lovino stuck his chin in the air decisively. “A Vargas does not simply give up. And if it doesn’t work out, quaere modum alium. That’s our family’s motto. Antonio?”
“That’s, ah… An imperative, and then, two accusatives. ‘Seek another way’?”
“Good. Maybe I won’t have to seek another way after all.” With that, the Italian picked up his shoulder bag and marched out the school.
Antonio smiled to himself. This could work out in his favour in the end. Maybe he’d earn a new friend. Moreover, the fact that he’d only once gone out with a boy, and usually stuck to girls, didn’t mean that he could not see that Lovino was very attractive. It wasn’t a punishment to spend time with him, even if he was probably ramrod straight.
…And of course, his Latin would improve.
[If there are any mistakes, I take the full blame. It's past midnight. I have no idea if that Latin for Lovino's family motto was right. Again, it's past midnight. I don't know if it's alright like this... The amount of actual Latin, I mean. I tried to keep it down a bit, since, well, this is not school.
What more... Oh, yes. Well, Antonio is bisexual, let's hope for him that Lovino is gay, the Vargas brothers are twins because I wanted them to be in the same year, the third brother is Seborga, and I'm tired. Goodnight, and thanks for all the comments, anons! ♥]
OP!
(Anonymous) 2012-12-01 05:04 am (UTC)(link)Anyway! I was super excited to see that this updated. I have to say I sympathize with Spain, that after four years of Latin I have been struggling with some basic things. However, I took four years of Latin 6 years ago. So I think I have more of an excuse.
I like how everything is flowing so far, starting with the first lesson and whatnot. The only thing is that I feel like Lovino is really, really cold to Antonio. I know he's a jerk to him most of the time but he gave like, 0 inkling that he isn't actually always a jerk? But then again this is only the second part so obviously you haven't had much time to develop their characters. So I'm just gonna shut up and enjoy the show :)
Author!
(Anonymous) 2012-12-01 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)Bah, yeah, I still can't do conjugations and I'm starting the fifth year now. But I think I'll have to study them a bit more, since I actually want to study classical languages at university in less than two years...
I didn't really feel like Lovino was too much of a jerk... In fact, by my standards, he's been pretty nice so far. xD I'd be pissed off if someone forgot the first appointment we made, so I think it's sort of justifiable. He'll warm up to Antonio in the future. :)
Now I'm off to study my German. Happy you like it!
Re: Aut disce aut discede [2c/?]
(Anonymous) 2012-12-04 02:18 am (UTC)(link)Author! This hasn’t gone much of anywhere yet- but Latin! I really like that it’s Lovino teaching Antonio and not the other way around.
I don’t see anything wrong with your Latin at all, which makes me really happy.
Reor hoc utis amplius latinam est rem bonum. Plus mox fūitne?
Re: Aut disce aut discede [2c/?]
(Anonymous) 2013-01-09 11:33 am (UTC)(link)Re: Aut disce aut discede [2c/?]
(Anonymous) 2013-01-21 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)