I pushed the door open, wanting to find a quiet place. Typically enough, there was already someone in there. The elder of the Italian brothers. What was his name? Roma? Something like that. I shrugged, and made to leave. He was looking at me with dark, angry eyes. They were kinda scary.
"What are you doing, dammit?" His voice was croaky, as if he'd been crying for several hours. I froze, too scared to talk. He ran a hand through his hair. "Dammit. If you want to sit here I won't disturb you. "I nodded, and sat down, away from him.
Several minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence passed. The rain was drumming hard on the window, darkening the room. I cleared my throat, unable to stand the silence any longer.
"Um... If it's okay with you, shall I turn on a light?"
Despite the dark I could still see his head shaking a definite no. I sighed. So much for relaxation.
"Hey. You're Italy, right?"
I watched, with some interest, as his shoulders stiffened. He seemed to be battling with himself, trying to say something, but holding it in.
"No, idiot! I'm Romano! Italy is my younger brother!" Romano seemed pretty pissed with me.
"Oh... I'm sorry." I hadn't meant to be rude. "But... Surely you're both Italy. Like... I'm Cymru, but I'm also Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. I'm not the whole of them, obviously, but I'm fine with being called by any of those names. How come you reject the name of Italy?"
He stayed silent, staring at me with those dark pools of hate. I'd been hanging out with Eire too much. His big, inappropriate mouth was rubbing off on me.
"I... I used to like being called Italy." My head jerked upwards. He was still talking to me?
"But then... Dammit! My fratello, he was always the favourite. It would be Veneziano this and Veneziano that and nobody would ever remember me. Even that tomato bastard would want him instead of me. I was never any fucking good at art, trade, music or any of the things which mattered to Grandpa Roma! Veneziano is a better representation of Italy than me. I let him have the name." He stood abruptly, nodded, then walked to the door. I was still sat, digesting the information he had fed me.
What was that about?
I'm bored and procrastinating. Enough said.
