Chapter One

Lovino's POV

I'm almost out of breath. I'm a pretty good runner, I have been in situations like this enough, but a person can only run for their lives at full speed for so long. It also doesn't help having a certain annoying Italian practically yelling in my year.

"Lovi! Why'd you have to steal from those nice people? They let us spend the night and fed us! And the food was pretty good too. I mean it wasn't as good as pasta, but there really isn't really anything as good as pasta. I wish I had pasta right now. Like maybe spaghetti or tortellini or cannoli or fettuccine or…"

At this point I'm not really listing to my twin brother. I know he'll be rambling on for the next who knows how long about every kind of pasta known to man until he runs out of ideas, or finds something new to capture his interest. Since I had already heard this about a thousand times in the past few days alone, I decide to focus on the more important task, escaping our pursuers while avoiding falling on my face. I don't know how Feli could be this energetic, because I know for a fact that he's just as tired as I am. And who on Earth has a casual conversation while running for his life?

Although, Feli may have had a point. At least, before he got lost on the vast subject of pasta. It's true that the couple had seemed nice. When they saw us on the streets, they had offered us a meal and a place to stay for the night, but that was the problem, it would only be for the night, and then Feli and I would be right back out on the streets, in just as bad a situation as the one we had started in. Feli seemed to think that they would take us in forever and become our new family, but I was more realistic. As soon as they found out about our little "issue" they would send us back out on the streets even quicker than they took us in, just like all the others had. Besides, even though Feli and I looked like we were in our early teens, we're both eighteen, about to turn nineteen. We're a little old to be adopted into some random family like in a little kid's book. But anyway, back to the present. I'm still running full speed, and can still hear the sound of pursuit behind me, although thankfully when I turn my head to the side I can't see anyone. That means that I can lose them, if I can find a good spot to hide. Unfortunately the street my brother and I are on seems perfectly straight, with not even a small alley to turn off into.

Who the hell designed this place? Those idiots should have realized someone's life might hang on whether or not they could find a good spot to hide!

Just as Feli and I are about to fall down from exhaustion, we see our chance. Up ahead there is a four way intersection. Putting on a burst of speed that I didn't even know was possible, I force Feli and I to the street on the left, we then run for a while before finding a large crate that we crouch down behind. By this point Feli has finally gotten too tired, and scared, to continue his list of pasta, so it's quiet now.

That quiet lasts for about ten seconds before I hear the sound of the city guard running down the street. Apparently they had enough of them to search all the streets, or they were just lucky. I hold my breath and pray to God that I'm completely hidden from view. I sit there, and sit there, and sit there for what seems to be an eternity. Thankfully, Feli's smart enough to not talk. So far none of the guards have found our hiding place. However, we stay where we are, knowing that it'll be awhile before it will be safe to leave. Resigned to the long wait, I begin to let my mind wander over our current predicament.

From what I can tell, nearly the entire guard is after us. It's ridiculous. After all, all I had stolen was some food, some new clothes, a tiny bit of money, a couple pieces of expensive looking jewelry, that ring that Mrs. WhatsHerFace had called a family heirloom, those two… never mind, scratch that, I guess I had stolen a bit more than just the necessities. Said stolen items are currently stored in a bag that I'm clutching in my lap, holding still so that it wouldn't make too much noise. After we get out of this place, Feli and I will be able to sell these on the black-market, and make enough money to survive awhile. This would have all gone a lot better if Mr. WhatsHisFace was not the head of the guard in this city. He definitely knew how to quickly round up a search. Stealing from him was probably not the most intelligent thing I had ever done, but then everyone makes mistakes sometimes right?

Not that it's my fault. Obviously it is Feliciano's fault. He was the one who got us invited into that house. That couple had taken one look at his pitiful puppy dog eyes, and were all over him in an instant, immediately inviting him, us, into their home. I had held back, not saying anything, and let Feli do all the talking. He was much better at the whole "social interaction" thing than I was, and so I usually let him take charge of that. It was him who got their attention, him who got us invited into their home and him who was at fault in this situation, not me.

Blaming someone else has really made me feel better, and I'm finally calm and focused on the shouting and pounding feet of the search.

Those guards are idiots! They had been searching all over for the past few hours, and none of them had even thought to look behind the giant crate against the wall! Of course, I'm not complaining, their idiocy makes our escape a lot easier.

Despite their idiocy, Feli and I are still tensed, not sure if our luck will continue to hold. After another hour or so however, the sound of the search has disappeared, and I breath a quite sigh of relief. I know it's possible that the guards are just trying to trick us out, but after another half hour of waiting, I am ninety percent sure that we are safe. I would have waited longer, but both Feli and I are in quite a lot of pain from our cramped position, and we both wanted to get out of it as soon as possible.

"Alright Feli, I think they're gone, but we still need to be careful. We're going to peek around and see what's going on, and then, if it's clear, try to get out of here" I quickly instruct my brother.

"Ve! Alright then fratello!" How he can sound so excited and chipper at a time like this is beyond me, but I don't have time to worry about that. I desperately want to get us out of this position. I throw the bag over my shoulder and get ready to move.

We creep around the edge of the crate, and look around. The coast appears to be clear, so we continue forward. I glance around again; we seem to be at the docks of the city. That explains why the guards hadn't found us, there were giant crates everywhere, and there was no way they could have checked behind all of them. We continue to creep forward until we hear a conversation approaching behind us. We jump behind a crate, a different one from the first time, and hide there, waiting as they walk by.

"…don't know why I continue to do this. I have absolutely no reason to put my neck on the line like this," an aristocratic voice said as he was approaching.

"Sure you do!" a loud voice with an irritating accent replied, "Her name is Elizaveta, or have you forgotten about your fiancé so quickly?" He asked with his irritating accent. The two continue to talk as they approach. The spot we are hiding in is not nearly as sheltered as our previous one, so I can see their silhouettes as they draw nearer. I can only hope that the shadows will be sufficient to hide us. As they draw nearer, their features begin to be more defined. The aristocratic sounding one is a brunette with a huge cowlick that can be seen even in the poor lighting, and he is wearing a very fancy looking suit. The other, with the annoying accent I had finally decided was German, had extremely blond (it was almost white) hair, a lean build, and was wearing some sort of sailor outfit.

"Anyways," the blond continued, "even without Elizaveta in the equation, you still would have helped out, because the awesome me commanded it, and you cannot resist the power of my awesome commanding skills."

The brunette muttered something unintelligible under his breath, and then continued in a somewhat louder volume, "First off, shut your mouth, we don't want anyone to hear us; Second, if you weren't Eliza's so called 'best friend', I would have attacked you for that completely untrue statement. In a very gentlemanly way, of course."

The conversation continues along those lines as they slowly walk down the street. I know I recognize the brunette, but for the life of me I can't lay a finger on where I know him from. Thankfully, Feli figures it out for me, in one of his rare, "not a complete idiot" moments.

"Isn't that Mr. Edelstein from last week?" he quietly asks me. I'm shocked for a moment at the fact that my obnoxious brother just said something both logical and quiet, he must be more afraid than I thought. But anyways, that's right it is Mr. Edelstein, we had come across him in the few weeks we had been living in this city. Well by come across I mean that he has walked by us with his nose in the air while I had thrown insults at his "aristocratyness" until Feli had shut me up. After that happened, we found out that he was one of the richest and most influential people in the city, owning some big merchant company or something like that. I was curious as to what he was doing out here, in what seemed to be quite a covert affair. Whatever he was doing, he definitely did not want to get caught doing it.

"Whatever Roddy. Let's just get the supplies to the Lucha Tomate and then you can get paid and leave." Oh God! The Lucha Tomate, isn't that the name of a pirate ship? Oh shit, does that make those people pirates? I couldn't see any other options, but also couldn't understand what this aristocratic bastard would be doing with pirates. I was so distracted by my thoughts that I didn't notice said aristocrat pointing out which crates were the supplies supposed to be loaded onto the ship, nor the footsteps approaching our hiding place. Because of this I was completely taken off guard as our crate was pulled away from the wall, apparently being one of them that were to be taken to the ship. I let out a, very manly, screech as a very shocked very German, face come into my line of sight. Crap, we're screwed. Feli is screaming something about how he was too pathetic to kill, his usual surrender speech, while I'm running through every curse I knew in both English and Italian (the list is even longer than Feli's list of pasta believe it or not). After a moment, the German cuts us off.

"Dammit, no one was supposed to hear that!" He looks over at the aristocrat, who looks extremely horrified that he had been seen in his less than ideal surroundings. "I guess we have no choice but to bring you to the Captain, we can't have anyone knowing about our arrangement." He seems to regret what he's saying, but grabs us roughly anyway. "If you try to run I will not hesitate to slit your throat." he says, and then begins to force us towards the dock, where I can see a large boat docked. He roughly drags us across the gangplank and onto the ship. Pushing us to the ground, he mutters in an intimidating voice, "Welcome to the Lucha Tomate."

Yep… we're screwed.

Characters and Translations

Feliciano=N. Italy

Lovino=S. Italy (Romano)

"Roddy"= Austria

Elizaveta= Hungary

That white haired (annoying) German (Gilbert) =Prussia

Lucha Tomate= Fighting Tomato (you can yell at Google Translate for my awful Spanish if necessary)

AN: So yeah, here's my new story (and by new I mean I've been working on it since the end of last year). It's all finished, so I'll probably have a pretty regular update schedule. Please review! Reviews make me happy and I usually end up running around the house with my laptop in hand to flip out (in happiness) and talk about any I get. I like critical reviews too, because they make me a better writer.

So yeah, I hope you enjoyed it, and review and follow and whatnot. Until next time.