This was done for a prompt from Tumblr with Austria mourning the death of Italy
Black clothed figures stood around an open grave, watching as a black coffin was lowered down into the earth. The decease in question was none other than Feliciano Vargas or North Italy was he was officially referred to. But there was no North Italy now nor was there a South Italy either. It had happen a few months ago, the Italian government had decided that no longer will the nation be divided as North and South Italy, just Italy. And as every nation knew, there could not be two representatives of for one nation. This meant that one of the brothers was an extra, an unnecessary burden. But no one knew, not even the Italy brothers themselves, that the Italian government had declared Feliciano that burden.
The other nations had argued this issue, though none more so than Lovino himself who argued that Feliciano was the one who knew how to handle their people and the paperwork the best. Sadly the protests had fallen on deaf ears and Feliciano's death was not avoidable. None of the nations knew of his passing until the next day, when Romano had made his way to Spain's home with tears in his eyes exclaiming that it should had been him. Spain had done two things at the moment; one was taking Romano into arms and the other was getting his assistant to call the other nations to tell them the sad funeral was a few days later and every nation stood by and watched as one of their own was lowered into mother earth's loving embrace.
Austria stood among them, his glasses fogged up because of his tears, with Hungary in his arms as she cried on his shoulder. Across the grave, Austria could see Romano staring blankly into his brother's grave and holding Spain's hand in a tight grip. Austria saw the way Romano's shoulder shook as he tried to keep his tears at bay while Spain on the other hand was crying freely over the younger nation he had cared for. Spain then looked up, met Austria's eyes and they stared at each other for a moment. Both of their hearts were breaking, not truly able to believe that the nation that they had both considered once considered being their son was gone. Sure they had their rough patches, all families did, and while Spain and Austria were not their actually parents, they had both thought seen Romano and Italy as their sons.
Once it was over and the coffin was buried, Austria detached himself from Hungary's arms and moved over to Spain and Romano. He shared a weak smile with the crying Spaniard before looking at Romano. Something during the burial, it had become too much and the tears had fallen from his eyes. He placed a hand on the grieving nation's head and looked down at him sadly. The remaining Italy brother sniffled and looked up at Austria for a moment before throwing himself into Austria's arms and crying into Austria's chest. Austria wrapped his arms around Romano and rubbed his back, his chin resting on Romano's head as the other's body shook violently with his sobs.
"It's not fair!" he yelled, his voiced muffled by Austria's black coat.
"No its not," he softly agreed before pulling back and lifting Romano's chin so the smaller nation was looking at him, "but he would not want us to be sad. He would want us to be happy and to eat lots of pasta." They shared a weak chuckle, "come with us back to the house, I'll make us pasta and Nutella cake." he said.
"C-can I lick the spoon?" he asked because whenever Austria made Nutella cake Italy and Romano always fought over who got to lick the spoon, it was tradition.
Austria smiled crookedly, "sure, you can lick the spoon. Now go on with Spain, I'll be there in a moment." with that he passed the smaller man over to Spain, who led them over to the limo that had brought them to the cemetery in the first place.
Once alone, Austria turned and placed his hand on the smooth marble of Italy's tombstone, "looks like you'll finally be able to be together with Holy Rome." he paused for a moment, his throat feeling tight, "Promise me you'll watch over us, God knows we need it. I just can't believe you're gone…you were like the son I never had. I'll miss you Feli..." He stood there in silence for a moment before patting the stone once and heading towards the car.
He shared a soft with Prussia, who took Austria into his arms before helping the musical nation into the limo. Austria was silent as he stared out the window, memories of Italy flashing through his mind. There was one thing that Austria was now certain.
The world was a darker place without Italy's smile to brighten it.