He'd never had a chance to before, but now that he'd grown older and closer to the other man to wipe away his tears, he wanted to be the support that the other man needed at times like this.
Romano loved those expressive, green eyes though he hated seeing such pain and all of those sad tears in them.
He longed to wipe them away one by one.
The Italian quickly came to realize that the other man was very stubborn in regards to insisting that Romano just go away for now which was how Lovino had discovered that Antonio's smile at times was a facade to keep others from knowing of his pain.
Lovino found himself, creeping closer to Antonio anyway in an attempt to wipe away his tears.
He knew that this moment would be a private moment just between them and that Antonio may try to get Romano to leave again.
Hearing Antonio's strangled sob, killed Romano as he stepped closer to take the other man into his arms and wipe away his tears.
Antonio curled deeper into Lovino's arms as he continued to cry.
Lovino held the nation of Spain closer to himself as the Spaniard's tears came to fill up his shirt.
Lovino would always be willing to be Spain's comfort despite Romano's youth.
He loved him much too much to just allow his pain to go on, and he knew of Spain's guilt from his pirate years, had noticed it back then at least slightly.
Lovino was too young especially back then to understand all of that guilt and bitter sadness that he'd come to know later on and need the comfort from the Spaniard that he'd fallen for; he'd also come to understand that simple fear of being seen as an easy country to defeat if someone witnessed his pain though he trusted the other to do what he'd done back then, to wipe away his tears and to hold him until his heart eased up on its ache that never completely left when not felt primarily.
That trust remained even to Romano a fearful thing as he grew older and learned what being a nation was about, and he grew to know much more in depth of what Spain struggled with on a regular basis though no one person could fully have the same perspective and the same memory of another.
Still Romano never would regret that difficult trust and neither would Spain.
They had each other for these moments, flawed and all.