A/N: My apologies if Spanish is your native language. My idea was for the reader to be spending a while on a trip to Spain as an exchange student to immerse themself in the language. I suppose you'll just have to make up an au in which you don't know Spanish as well...)
"I believe in the power of touch," he'd told you when you asked him after about two weeks of kisses on the cheek as part of his greeting. "When there are no walls, people are closer and happier!"
You shook your head and smiled. "Not everyone would agree with you there...but it does make me smile." Antonio's burned bright as a hundred-watt lightbulb, while yours flickered like a candle. He would have to settle for the moments it burned brighter than normal.
You hadn't been quite sure what to expect when you came to Spain for a semester. The adventure appealed to you, as well as the challenge of using a language besides your native tongue. It greeted you with stunningly balmy winds for January, bright cities, and him. Toni declared you instant friends, and for the first two weeks you reluctantly went along with it. His rapid Spanish almost always lost you despite your knowledge of the language. It only got worse when he dragged you out to meet his friends. Still, despite having the foreigner's disadvantage, those nights were electric. Nights spent dancing (though you constantly told him "no puedo bailar, no lo puedo![1]"), ordering way too much food and staying for hours on end to laugh at jokes that became increasingly easier to translate. Him. He was the one common denominator, and even now it was hard to think of him without painting his face with a neon glow. Though it embarrassed you to do it, especially at the beginning, whenever you asked he would translate, though sometimes his explanations confused you further. His friends welcomed you, though it did bother you more than it should have when they had some inside joke with Antonio.
It felt very...right, walking home exhausted after a night of reveling, laughing, carrying your shoes, his arm draped over your shoulders. Eventually, people stopped giving you the eye when you were the last one back in the student housing complex on Friday night. The same applied for your escort. Antonio would leave you with a kiss blown your way and his indelible grin.
You didn't want to imagine the end of the semester. Come summer, you would be gone, packed up and departed for home. Did Toni know that? He acted as though you would be here forever. A stone formed at the pit of your stomach when you entertained the thought of leaving him. That couldn't happen, not without telling him how you felt. He might not feel the same—it was true that he kissed you on the cheek, but he did that to everybody—and that was ok. You could tell him in the last 2 weeks, when if you screwed it up, at least you would be gone soon anyway.
***
Antonio opened the door to you that morning. His hair stuck out at odd angles, and his green eyes drooped with sleep. A mug of coffee hung almost precariously from his fingers. Adorable. It took him a moment to realize that it was you.
"Buenos días, Toni~[2]" You greeted him in singsong Spanish that echoed his own tone a little bit.
"Mm...y a tí, mi querida,[3]" he mumbled. To add to your growing blush, he lingered a little too long with his usual greeting kiss on the cheek. /Just a smidgen to the left, please/, you thought to yourself, but he sighed softly and pulled back.
"Sorry to wake you up so...early?" It was at least nine o'clock the last time you checked, and even if they'd had a wild night, most people were up by now.
"No, no, it's fine—" A yawn cut him off. "Breakfast?"
The eggs were a little overdone, but he made them for you so of course you ate them. You had come with the intent of taking him out somewhere, as a way to repay those times he'd covered your tab, but to your surprise just sitting across the table from him was pleasant in and of itself. For all the time you'd spent with him, one-on-one conversation was actually rather unusual. And here you were, on your fourth mug of coffee, commandeering the language of the conversation just to get him to speak English with that sweet little accent. Toni's voice seemed about a thousand times sexier when he was tired. To you it did, anyway. It was hard to focus on translating his words, much less the looks he gave you, the meaning behind his movements. For someone who seemed so straightforward and open as Antonio, he was hard to read. He probably didn't return your feelings, did he? He acted so friendly to everyone, and you were overthinking everything he did for you just because you thought he was just so cute and sweet and funny...
"_____, what's wrong?" Antonio crouched to meet your eyes, which had fixed themselves on the guitar propped up in the corner.
You shook your head and fought for a smile. "Nothing, Toni. I'm fine."
"You miss somebody?" He pushed some of the hair from your forehead, and a lump caught in your throat. Yes, you did miss friends back home, but you also missed the beautiful person in front of you somehow, and you weren't sure how it hurt more to miss a person right in front of you than to miss people thousands of miles away.
"Some people, yes. It'll be nice seeing them again."
"I am going to miss you when you leave..." The sincerity of his voice broke your heart. Something sent your lips to his forehead in a soft kiss, and he looked up at you in a kind of amazement. "Escribame? [4]"
You nodded, feeling like you could smile and cry at the same time. "I will. The longest letters ever. But you have to write back, ok?" His smile somehow forced a tear from your eye.
"Of course!" And he finally, finally leaned in, fingertips resting beneath your jaw, and kissed you for real.
He surprised you again, standing up before you could quite process what just happened, and pulled you up with him. "Now, no more tears. None. Not allowed. I can't let you be sad any more."
"Toni," you chided, already feeling your smile return.
"No más! [5] I forbid it!" He pretended to whirl you across a dance floor, sending you dangerously close to table corners and that guitar he loved to play so much. "You are—" a kiss on the cheek. "Too pretty—" a kiss on the other cheek. "To be crying."
It grew still, but with a sharp undercurrent drawing you into each other. Foreheads touched, his arms wound around your waist, and loneliness seemed so far from you that it ceased to be.
"I think I love you, Toni," you murmured, your voice too quiet for your racing heart.
He merely propped his chin on top of your head and whispered something into your hair that you didn't quite catch. That was alright, though. He smelled like sunshine and coffee, and he seemed to love you too.
_________________________________
[1]: "I can't dance, I can't!"
[2]: "Good morning~"
[3]: "And to you, my dear"
[4]: "Write to me?"
[5]: "No more!"
