Have mercy please! Haha, this is my first ever fanfiction so please be gentle in critiquing. This is written about Holy Roman Empire and little Italy. The inspiration was a jump rope rhyme from when I was a little kid. The basis of it is in here~. Please, feel free to review it, I'm sure I need all the help I can get! Anyways, enjoy.
The monotonous bell rang out, startling me. It always rang at the same time each day, though today's felt a little different. 'Don't be ridiculous, you're just imagining things...'
"Alright class, time for recess! Remember, it's the day we take a picture of our entire class so try to stay clean." Mrs. Tollison smiled down at us and opened the door to the playground. 'She's so happy... Her smile is so pretty. Not as pretty as her's ,though-'.
I ran around for a second trying to clear my thoughts. 'Quick, think of something to say,she's right here! Improvise!' I all but flailed my arms. Of course, she didn't seem to notice as she casually wandered over to me.
"Ciao Rome~!" Her adorable voice squeaked out. "How are you today~?"
"I-uh-hi-Italy. I, uhm, am good. And you?" 'Congratulations, you didn't run away. Now control the bubbles in your chest.' I tried to calm down and appear cool and nonchalant. I doubt it was working.
"I'm great~! Hey,want to play a game with my brother and our friend? It's a jump rope rhyme Miss Hungary taught us~!" She started reciting it but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I nodded in consent and she grabbed my hand. ' Wha-what is she doing?'. " Don't worry, I'll show you where we are~! ". With that she ran, wobbly, over to a couple others.
Her brother glared at me immediately. " Why is he here, Fratellino? You know which game we're playing.". He kept staring at me with this look in his eyes, not quite hatred or jealousy, but those were definitely there. The hatred I could understand,but jealousy?...
She seemed to blush a bit and replied " He's my friend,I want him to play. Pleeeease~? ". I almost felt a wave of hope at her expression, it was so sweet and determined. Her brother finally looked away and agreed, saying almost angrily " Alright fine. He has to go first though."
She jumped up at her brother and hugged him tight. "Grazieeee~!" She then turned to me and,with a heartrendingly cute smile asked "Ready?". All I could do was mutter an affirmative and rub my cheeks to fight the recurring heat.
I gulped as discreetly as possible and walked to the middle of the rope. There was a little girl on one side with two dark brown ponytails and Italy's brother was on the other. The little girl with the ponytails was designated reciter because she was able to say it the clearest. We stood in position for a few seconds then they began to swing the rope slowly and I jumped, getting into the rhythm quickly. Then the girl began to sing it,and all the color left my face. Well,except that horribly bright redness in my cheeks.
"Ice cream soda cherry on top! Who's your girlfriend? I forgot. Is it A, B, C..."
I focused as hard as I could on the timing. I didn't know what would happen if I messed up on a letter so I kept going as long as my legs would let me. "E, F, G" ... Which wasn't long.
At "G" I'd thought I had it down pat, so I glanced up from my feet. In that moment I saw her brother's expression get darker and ... Maybe it was my delusional mind, but it almost looked to me as if Italy was holding in a sigh. She had her eyes almost shut and her little hands balled... She looked beautiful in her picture day clothes, a nicer variant of her usual green dress and apron. This one she was wearing was a bit more frilly, though while playing she'd gotten dirt on her knees.
I looked back down quickly, praying my face had gotten as red as it will ever get and stop, when I saw a pebble near my feet. I'd already completed my jump for "H" and was coming back down for "I". Somehow I miscalculated how far my feet were from the pebble,slipped on it,and fell out of the rope's reach.
I used my arms to shield my face. The landing didn't hurt so much as the knowledge I failed. Also, the now-dirty cravat didn't help. I considered shriveling up and dying but before I could make a decision I was roughly pulled up back to my feet.
"What the hell do you think you're doing,landing on 'I' ? You're not dating Italy, I'll fight you!" His fists started pummeling my back.
" Huh? I never said I was, leave me alone!" I flailed at him and almost ran away. Almost. The thing that held me back was a small squeaky voice crying " Stop it Fratello! What if I want to,please let me!" and a little green flash launching itself at me. Fortunately I caught her but the force took me back to the ground. She was sitting on my tummy arguing with her brother over... What? Am I hearing this correctly? She's arguing for the freedom to... Date me... What? I never really thought about dating anyone before but my big brother says it's something good if you like the person.
"Uhm excuse me, but what does slipping on the 'I' have anything to do with me dating Italy?" I considered sitting all the way up but that would involve Italy moving... I decided I could withstand it.
"What are you, stupid? If you mess up during the alphabet part whichever letter you messed up on is the first letter of your girlfriend's name. Or boyfriend. Usually you try to use people's names who're there,like Fratellino over there." Her brother glared at me so strongly I could almost physically feel his anger. 'But wait, Italy said she wants to...'
Italy turned from her brother to look down into my eyes, her own amber eyes shining with what I think was joy. "Sooo..." she started, her little cheeks as red as her brother's anger. "... Are you mad? ... Or are you ok with it...?" The look on her face had turned quickly from giggly happiness to worry. Did she think I could refuse her?
I knew her brother would kill me later for this, but oh well. I leaned up and kissed her lightly on the lips. She squeaked and hopped up off me. "Ah~! I'm sorry, I must've hit your stomach by accident and caused your head to pop up! I'm sorry!" Just like that she started crying, so I stood,hugged her and replied " There was no accident."
The look in her eyes when she realized what she heard. "Davvero?"
I smiled and nodded. She hugged me tight and was about to say something when our teacher appeared by the door to the classroom. The one day I don't wish for her to come sooner.
On our way back to class Italy asked if I'd mind sitting next to her in the picture. Of course I didn't mind! I calmly told her I'd enjoy to. The teacher lined us all up. To make sure we stayed together I gently grabbed her hand and she hung on tight. We were all positioned and ready for the picture,so the teacher stood in her place to the left of us and said for everyone to smile. The cameraman said he'd count to three and then take the picture. Everyone was ready so the man started his countdown slowly.
"3 "... I snuggled beside Italy,still holding her hand.
"2 " She poked me and I looked over, surprised.
"1!" She kissed me on the cheek. My own mouth made an 'o' of surprise.
SNAP! It was done.
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Germany picked up a few books, trying to clean the mess that is his brother's room. There was an old worn book that jutted out from under his mattress. 'He really needs a better place to stash his porn' Germany thought, opening the book out of curiosity. A little picture was in there, a little crumbled but in good shape considering it's location. He looked closely at the picture, noting a cute little girl kissing an equally cute and surprised little boy. He felt a little pang of hope looking at that picture, though he didn't know why. Smiling at his tendency to overthink things, he kissed the picture, closed the book, and put it back under the bed.
Reviews are loved! Even if it's a few words, the knowledge people are reading it~. Thanks! By the way, the little girl with the ponytails is supposed to be Seychelles, in case anyone was wondering.