Antonio finds himself called to Italy for a job request concerning a boy who had vanished many years ago. Upon entering the country, he soon has a strange encounter with a mysterious teen with tally marks on his arm. He finds himself wondering what the boy could possibly be hiding, and thinks that he may soon find out. Unfortunately, he hadn't made the best first impression. "Francis, I'm going to have to hang up on you. I think I just ran somebody over."
Warning: Swearing. Romance/Suspense/Slight supernatural
Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I do not own "Hips Don't Lie", either
I drove down the empty road, my arm hanging out of the open window, which allowed the warm summer air to seep into the car. The car's engine had a smooth and quiet rumble and the road was flat, recently laid. I could hear a few crickets chirping their lonely songs somewhere in the distance, a symphony heard but never seen as they hid themselves away in the shadows and greenery. The dark night stretched all around me with barely any light to chase away the darkness. A silver crescent of a moon floated in the sky overhead and the glow of the car's headlights cut a swath through the night, allowing me to see a few metres ahead. A sense of pure calm came over me and I relaxed further into the seat, foot pressing the pedal farther down. From the corner of my eye, I could see fields flying past in blurs.
Of course, the peace couldn't last forever and my phone rang, the sound of Shakira's Hips Don't Lie loudly filling the car. With a sigh, I pulled my arm back into the car - I wouldn't use my other hand and pray that Jesus takes the wheel again. I had learnt my lesson the last time - and dug my phone out of my pocket, pressing the answer button without checking the caller ID.
"Antonio!" the person on the other end of the line cheered before I even got a chance to say hello. "I've been waiting to get a hold of you. Gilbert and I have been wondering how your trip to Italy went."
"It went well, Francis." I said with a chuckle. "I just passed the border a little while ago."
"He didn't die, did he?" I heard Gilbert ask from somewhere in the background. "Italian mafia, you know?"
Francis shooed him off, and I found myself grinning as I heard my friends bicker. I had only left a few hours ago, but I already missed them terribly. I found myself wondering when I would see them again, though I had no idea when that'd be.
"You can talk, right?" Francis asked once he had finished dealing with Gilbert. "I'm not bothering you?"
"Of course not!" I laughed. "I'm only driving."
"Don't drive off of the road now, Toni." Francis said. I could practically hear him grinning.
"That was one time." I murmured. "Anyway, it's not like I'm drunk this time."
"Knowing you, I wouldn't be surprised if you did that while sober."
"Shut up Francis," I said with a smile.
"Anyway," Francis went to change the subject. "How long do you think that you'll be gone?"
I sighed. "Hard to tell. I should be arriving at the house within fifteen minutes. I'll unpack as much as I can and then go to sleep. I'm hoping to get started on this job tomorrow morning. I'll be able to come home sometime this month, if I'm lucky."
"Tell him that he'll shock everyone with his awesome investigating skills!" Gilbert called.
I imagined Francis rolling his eyes. "You'll shock everyone with your awesome investigating skills."
"I'm not so sure this time, Francis." I muttered uncertainly. "I've never worked with something like this before. It's really weird."
"Care to explain?"
"Well the man who hired me, Romulus, owns most of the land around here. He's treated like royalty, and it's a custom for the wealth and power in his family to be passed down to the eldest son. His son had died at a young age though, so it will be going to his grandson, who could practically be considered a prince, what with the way people treat them for their riches."
"And the problem is?" Francis urged.
I stuck the phone between my shoulder and my ear, freeing my hand so that I could brush my hair out of my eyes. I let out another sigh. I seemed to be doing that a lot of that lately. "The kid disappeared over a decade ago."
Francis was silent on the other end. Even Gilbert, who had been blabbering throughout my entire explanation, had stopped talking, which led me to believe that Francis had put me on speaker. Finally, after letting the information sink in for a moment, Francis spoke.
"Kidnapped, then?"
"That's the thing," I said. "I'm going to have to find out more about this. From what I've been told, it doesn't seem that way. Romulus said that he was there one day and gone the next, nearly all traces of his existence gone. Photographs, personal belongings, clothes… They had all been taken and the kid was nowhere to be seen."
"Well, with all of the high tech. security that they have nowadays and considering how rich this guy seems to be, it does seem odd that someone could break in."
"There is one clue, though." I told him.
"And that is?"
"A note," I said. "A note with one simple instruction: give the power to his younger brother and don't go searching for him."
"He ran away then?" Francis pondered. "How old was he?"
"Only five. Despite the note, they searched anyway. It's against tradition to pass anything down to anyone but the eldest son. They scoured all over Italy but they had no luck. His name was in the headlines of news articles for ages: Lovino Vargas announced missing."
I spared a brief glance to the passenger seat of the car, which was covered in folders and newspapers, old and new. The words I had spoken to Francis stared back at me from a page at the top of the pile of newspapers. It was a copy of the first edition to be released to the public about the boy's disappearance.
Francis hummed. I heard a shuffling noise and soon Gilbert's voice appeared again, much too loud which meant that he was yelling straight into the phone. "Why's this kid so damn important anyway? Screw the tradition, just pass the stuff down to his brother and be done with it."
"You don't understand," I said in exasperation. "It isn't a tradition that simple to break. This isn't like having pizza on your birthday instead of cake; this would be breaking a chain that has gone on for generations."
"Pronounce him dead, then." Gilbert said. "He probably is anyway. Then his brother would automatically become the oldest and everything works out."
"We can't pronounce him dead without solid evidence, Gil." I tried to explain.
"He probably starved or got himself murdered. The kid was five, Toni," my albino friend continued to persist. "Ten years. Over ten whole years have passed. You're not going to find him."
"Wilder things have been done, just ask Francis." I said. Upon hearing said person's laughter in the background, I groaned. "You know I didn't mean it in the way that you're thinking."
"Or did you?" Francis snickered.
My eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and I stuck the phone out of the window, shouting a loud, "Just look at how much I don't care! I'll throw you out the window!"
Francis was probably screaming something about the screech that appeared whenever you stuck a phone out of a car window and into the air quickly whooshing past. Either that or he was threatening to kill me if I ruined such a good phone. I knew him well enough to be able to figure out just what would tick him off.
My gaze on the phone, I lost sight of the road ahead for a split second, but that seemed to be just enough time for something to appear in front of my car. I saw the figure out of the corner of my eye; not too tall, but definitely too big to be an animal. My head immediately whipped forward and I threw the phone somewhere into the car, grabbing tightly onto the wheel with both hands and slamming my foot on the breaks with as much power as I could muster. I was already driving God knows how much over the speed limit, and the car eventually screeched to a hazardous halt. I heard a crash.
The force of the stop had caused me to fly forward, and by the time I sat up again, I was sure that I was as white as a sheet. All air had been knocked out of my lungs and I pulled in a deep, shuddering breath. My heart ached painfully, and I was sure that it would only hurt more if I had really done what I thought I had.
"Antonio!" I heard Francis' scream from somewhere in the car. "What the hell just happened? Are you okay?"
Still breathing deeply, I reached across the seat and grabbed the phone from where it lay in the scattered papers. It had hit the window and caused what looked to be a small crack to appear. I gingerly raised the phone to my ear.
"Dios mios," I breathed. "Francis, I'm going to have to hang up on you. I think I just ran somebody over."
Having given up on my last Spamano fanfic, "Waiting For The End", I've decided to start a new one! This one is already complete, so there's no need to worry about me abandoning it. Risingstar13720 has adopted it, if you wish to read it. Updates on this one will be made on a regular basis! Should they be daily, or spread further apart? I don't want to get annoying, haha.
Special thanks to RainbowCake-Eater, Apela, and idioticwrites for helping me out with this!
Review? c:
