Two Halves of a Whole

by AnimeGirl9894

Romano never felt as if he could compare with his brother, Feliciano. Italy would be better off without him, after all he was barely even part of Italy at all. Romano begins feel that he is truely useless and starts to fade away. Feliciano needs to let his brother know how much he really means to him or risk losing him forever. No itacest

I thought of this fic after I saw the episodes of Axis-powers where the Roman Empire shows up randomly in the sky and starts singing and Italy is so happy to see him. Then later Germany actually met the Roman Empire. He was so happy to see Italy and he said how strong he had become but that whole time I kept thinking "Why isn't he visiting Romano too?! Why is he only proud and happy to see Feli?"

So this is how Lovino feels about this. (Of course they don't know Germany met Roman Empire cuz Italy was asleep). THIS IS NOT ITACEST! It's just family comfort and angst.

I DON'T own Hetalia or any of the characters.

Veneziano shifted in his bed and slowly blinked open his honey colored eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. The room was dark and nothing was out of place. His uniform was still neatly placed on a chair where he'd left it. The window was cracked open letting in a cool breeze with the sound of rain echoing lightly around his room. Nothing was out of place but something seemed wrong. Blinking away the last remains of sleep from his eyes, he sat up in bed and tossed the light blue comforter off of himself. He stood up and as quietly as possible and tip-toed to his door and peeked out into the hall. Everything was silent as he expected, it was after all at least two in the morning. Maybe I need a little midnight snack~ The Italian thought happily. He slipped out of his room and down the hall but he paused when he saw that his brother's bedroom door was wide open. Usually they slept in the same bed, neither particularly fond of being alone, but tonight Romano had said he wanted to sleep alone for once and for Italy to leave him alone. After that they had both gone to bed in their own separate rooms. Curiosity getting the best of him, he peered into his fratello's room.

But it was empty. The blankets on the bed were haphazardly thrown on the floor and rain was dripping onto the bed from the open window. Italy felt worry settle in his stomach like a rock and he fully stepped into the room and looked around for his missing brother. "Fratello? Sei qui? (Are you in here?) Lovino?" He looked through the few blankets that were still on the bed and then in the closet and in the bathroom. With each empty room he felt his panic grow. Surely nothing had happened to Romano? If he had been ambushed in his room by some unseen attacker then Feli would've heard something. Italy hurried out of the abandoned room and into the living room.

It was empty.

"Lovino! Fratello!" He called. There was no answer. The house remained silent. He glanced around the living room one last time before he headed to the kitchen. Again it was empty. Everything was where it always was and nothing was out of place once again but the feeling of unease hung heavily in the air. There was a light creak of a floorboard and Italy froze. He listened closely and waited. A couple minutes later there was the muffled sound of something being moved. He took a deep breath and proceeded down the hall from the kitchen into a room on the far side of the house. As he got closer he could hear shuffling. At the end of the hall was a study that Romano and Italy hardly ever went in. It was a dusty room full of books from different time periods and paintings from the renaissance and many other souvenirs from the long history of both north and south Italy. The door was only open a couple inches and from inside warm light was leaking out into the darkness of the hall. Northern Italy gulped and gently inched open the heavy wood door and looked inside the room.

The walls were covered in paintings, many painted by Veneziano himself and a few made by Romano as well. Bookshelves stood on every wall and above the window on the far side of the room was a large Italian flag from many years ago when Italy became unified. A single lamp was on, casting a dull yellow light in the room. Then standing in the middle of the room was none other than Romano. Italy leapt forward and wrapped South Italy in a tight hug. Ve~ Fratello why are you in here? I looked all over the house for you! I looked in your room and you weren't there and I looked in the living room and it was empty and so was the kitchen! I'm so happy your ok!" He expected his brother to push him away and let out a long list of curses at him but instead he just shrugged.

"I was just looking in here, stupid." He muttered quietly. Veneziano followed his gaze to a large, beautifully made painting of their grandpa Rome. The man stood proudly in the middle of the painting. He was smiling broadly and his eyes shone with happiness. Suddenly Italy felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and loneliness. But the emotions weren't his own. Because they were the same country, when one of them felt strong emotions, the other could feel them as well. He slowly let go of Romano and walked around him to see Lovino's face and it was then that he saw that the older Italian's dark hazel eyes were red rimmed and he could see tear marks trailing down his face.

"Perché piangi fratello? Qualcosa non va? (Why are you crying brother? Is something wrong?)" He asked worriedly. Romano blinked and then glared at him.

"None of you damn business! Why are you even in here? I thought I told you to leave me alone!" Romano yelled angrily. Italy was completely unfazed by the outburst.

"Why are you crying?" He repeated, this time more seriously. Romano looked over the younger Italian's head and then looked at Italy with a look of so much hurt that Italy felt his heart break before Romano even said anything.

"That stupid American bastard told me that you saw grandpa Roma! He said that you were all fighting and you saw him singing! Why did you get to see him?!" Italy was taken aback by what South Italy had said. He had thought that he was seeing things when he saw Grandpa Rome. They were all stranded on that island so he'd assumed it was some sort of hallucination. "I knew you were his favorite…" Romano looked away and tried to fight back the tears that were blurring his vision. His brother was the wimpy crybaby not him. Even if Grandpa Rome didn't love him as much his brother he'd show him that he was stronger than his stupid brother. Romano felt a few tears slide down his face and he felt his resolve crumble. Who was he kidding? He would never be better than Veneziano. He couldn't paint as well or trade as well. He had never been as strong as his northern brother. His thoughts were cut off as he was suddenly pulled into a tight hug. He thought of pushing his brother away but before he could stop himself he felt tears streaming down his face and couldn't stop himself from breaking down.

Italy hugged the southern nation and rubbed his back slowly as ragged sobs shook his body. "I'm not his favorite. He loved us both equally." He felt Lovino shake his head and let out a few shaky breaths.

"Bugiardo (Lier). It's obvious he loved you more. I can't paint or trade or do anything. Italy… would be better off without me." Romano's voice shook as he said the last sentence. Italy's eyes widened and he hugged his brother even tighter.

"That's ridiculous! Italy wouldn't even be Italy without you!" By now Romano had calmed down somewhat but tears were still flowing down his face and soaking Veneziano's shoulder. But he didn't care. All that mattered right now was making Lovino realize how important he was to him.

"You're Italy…I'm just Romano. No one calls me Italy. I'm not in any alliances or a trading capital of the world." Suddenly Veneziano felt his arms begin to go through Romano. He pulled away in alarm and saw that Lovino was beginning to fade. If countries began to think of themselves as useless and not see their purpose in existing then they would disappear. Italy let out a loud shriek at seeing his brother's form starting to fade. If he disappeared, he'd be gone forever!

"No! Don't even think that Lovino! You are not useless! You are Roma! An amazing city that people from all over the world go to see!" Romano looked at him with gazed eyes and tears poured down his face. "You can't disappear Fratello! I can't be Italy on my own! I need you here! Without you I'm just a weakling that waves a white flag and runs away at the slightest sign of danger! You're the brave one, you're the strong country not me! Spain will miss you and Austria too! And Japan and even Germany!" Italy took a deep breath and tried to wipe the tears from his eyes.

"Grandpa Rome always said that if I ever wanted to be strong and be able to stand as my own country I needed to be brave and strong! He said I needed to be more like you, Romano!" Italy stopped and covered his face with his hands. Suddenly he stumbled back as something fell onto him. He opened his eyes to see what had fallen on him was Romano. He quickly pulled Romano over to a couch and laid him down. His brother was pale and unconscious but his body was once again solid. Italy collapsed on the floor next to the couch and watched Romano carefully. He was so scared that he was going to disappear. His fratello would have been gone forever. There would no longer have been South Italy. "Non lasciare mai. (Don't ever leave)."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Sunlight shone through the large window and streamed into the large room. Feliciano woke up and rubbed his neck. It ached from leaning against the couch for hours in the same position. He quickly looked over at his older brother to see that he hadn't moved or woken up yet. The color had returned to Lovino's face and his breathing was back to normal. North Italy sighed in relief and stood up and cracked his back. He looked around the room and shook his head, as the events from the previous night replayed through his mind. There was a loud moan from the couch and immediately at his brother's side. "Ve Romano, are you ok? Do you need some water? Maybe some tomato soup?"

"Close the damn curtains…" And after a pause he added, "Please." Feliciano dashed over to the window and pulled down the curtain and was again by his brother's side in less than a minute. It was quiet for a moment as Romano squinted open his eyes and looked over at Italy. Italy sat silently, nervously waiting for his brother to say something. "Did you really mean what you said?" His voice was hoarse and just above a whisper.

"Si, everything was true." He paused and let a small smile form on his lips. "Grandpa Roma did always lecture me that even though I could paint and draw I needed to be strong if I ever wanted to be a country. He said I needed to be strong like mio fratello and that it was a good thing I had you so that someday we would be a powerful country." Romano was staring at the ceiling with a light smile on his face. His eyelids drooped and he looked back at Veneziano and smiled a true and honest smile.

"Grazie Fratello…" He yawned tiredly, "for not letting me disappear."

Italy smiled as his Romano drifted back to sleep and looked at the beautiful painting of grandpa Rome. He looked in the bottom left corner and in small cursive handwriting it said:

'Lovino Vargas'

"And fratello says he can't paint." Veneziano shook his head, smiling. He looked up at the Roman Empire. "You'd really be proud of him if you were here grandpa Rome."

The End

Thank you for reading! I hope Lovi and Feli were both very much in character. Please tell me what you thought and leave a review.