AN: Hello! Welcome to the Hetalia story: The Keystone.

This is my second hetalia fanfiction, so I hope it gets good criticism and love!

Enjoy!

(EDIT: Oh I just realized the first chapter was missing a very crucial part... frick. Well, I reuploaded it so for those who just read it... you should probably scroll down the page a bit.)

Lemons Are Used in Cologne

"Boss Antonio, You can't just walk out of this deal!" Their feet shuffling on the pavement, his own henchmen ran after him. Light spanned across the warehouse through the broken windows, a man wearing a pinstriped suit was sitting in front of where he stood before.

He stopped to watch dust speckle his perfectly shined black shoes. The footsteps behind him halted, leaving an echo in warehouse. The entrance to the warehouse slowly cracked open, the screeching sounds resounded through the building, as the rest of the Mafia stood silent.

A nervous laugh rang out from the pinstripe-suited man and he began to speak feverishly.

"Your mother in Spain, she is doing well right? I doubt she can handle her job being taken away from her."

The Boss turned his chestnut hair to glare at the smirking man behind him.

"She's fine and she'll stay that way." he turned to face the man threatening his mother.

"Which reminds me, how is your wife? Pregnant isn't she?" Antonio returned a sly smile etched into his face. Forest green irises lowered to the man sitting before him, the smirk on the man's face sliding off at the mention of his pregnant wife.

"Don't you dare touch her!" The man stood up from his chair, clenching his fists.

"My mother will continue to be in good health and prosperity then."

The man glared daggers before tensing and looking down in tight resignation.

"Good."

Antonio walked out of the warehouse, his henchmen following behind. The desolate silence left in the warehouse was tangible.

"Boss! Boss!" He turned to his right hand man, Ciro; absentmindedly brushing some of the dust off his expensive suit.

"What is it?"

"Why did you just walk out, Boss? That deal was worth two million Euros!"

His gaze turned dark and Ciro resisted the urge to back away from his Boss. Antonio reached into his suit, pulling out a middle sized manila folder.

As they walked to his classy black limo he gave the folder to the curious man and they sat on the leather seats; one of his henchmen closing the door behind them.

"Take a look at this, you'll understand then."

Ciro flipped open the flap and pulled out a couple of papers, rummaging through them. Antonio sighed and pulled out a mini bottle of wine, popping the lid with the car's bottle opener, and let the fizz calm down. He closed his tired eyes and leaning back into the leather-cushioned seats a bit, he drank the contents of the rich wine. Letting the alcohol calm his nerves, he placed a ring-covered hand under his chin and waited for Ciro to finish reading the papers.

His forest green eyes wandered out the window and watched the shady houses blur by, men and women in poverty living in broken down rooms, holes in some parts of the roofs. He then saw a patch of auburn hair, a single curl that was bouncing and defying gravity. The man attached to it had a face as red as a tomato, and seemed very furious. He was being surrounded by a slew of men in black, presumably henchmen from some mafia family.

Probably some innocent bystander. Antonio thought to himself, curiosity piquing his interest.

One of the suited men grabbed the aurburn man's forearm and he jerked his arm away, yelling at the man. Woah, what is he doing here anyway?

As Antonio leaned closer to the scene, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"That is just sick."

"What?" Antonio turned back to Ciro, peering at him in confusion.

"This… what they do to those children is sick." Ciro pointed at the manila folder.

"Oh," the Boss blinked at his right hand man and then his face brightened in comprehension, "Yes, so after Concetta did some digging, she found their underground human trafficking business, and so I've decided not to deal with them."

"We… we can't let them get away with this."

"Yes, I agree." He nodded his head of chestnut hair and gave Ciro a comforting pat.

He put down the bottle of wine in the chiller and giving instructions of a change in location, he settled down with a serious glint in his eyes. The scene he witnessed outside forgotten.

"Ciro, contact the Britannia."

"Fucking Feliciano. Stupid brother." Lovino cursed his brother from the Vatican to Germany, "Stupid wurst loving bastard." He kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk but missed. "Stupid pebble." He huffed and continued to stride down the cracked sidewalks of his old poverty stricken neighborhood. "Ever since Feliciano met that potato jerk, all he ever does is talk about him," he imagined the German in his mind so he could punch him, "it's like I don't even exist, damn it."

There was a pause in his steps and he sighed. Looking down at his shoes to dust some dirt off the expensive leather, he straightened his Armani shirt. At the age of 23, why the hell was he the heir of the Roma Mafia Famiglia?

A persistent scowl on his face dimmed slightly into a more somber expression.

It was only 5 years ago that their grandfather found them in this neighborhood…

"Come on Feliciano, we have to go…now!" He pulled at the back collar of his 15 year old, younger brother's shirt." The shady grocery store they were in was a regular sight for the two brothers. Lights flickered and people walked in between the isles, their dirty, ragged clothes showing obvious poverty.

"But Lovi, look at this pasta~" He pointed, at the premium, high quality rigatoni—albeit the grime that covered the package was a little unattractive—the pasta was something that the two orphans could never afford.

"No, this pasta is too expensive, we have to go pay! Now!" His temper started to rise and Feliciano glanced back at his brother with tears in his eyes.

"But the pasta…"

"We already bought four packages of cheaper pasta, idiota fratello." His voice rising in volume.

The younger Vargas lowered his head in defeat, "Okay..."

"Go and line up at the cashier, I have something I need to find."

The younger Vargas looked up with a panic, "But, Lovi—"

Lovino covered his brother's mouth and glared.

"Don't be afraid, coward, it's just a cashier line. I'll be there before you have to pay, so don't start panicking just because you don't have money with you (since I do) like you did last time and run out of the line again." He raised a threatening fist to his brother, "We had to go all the way to the back of the line. There were like thirty people behind us, chigi!"

He released his brother's captive mouth so that the idiot could breathe and then waited for the other Vargas to calm his nerves.

Feliciano rubbed some of the tears from his eyes and nodded, "Okay, fratello."

With a sudden flip of mood that caused his older brother to blink at the whiplash, and a bouncing skip, he got into the line and waved merrily to his older brother.

The scowl on Lovino's face immediately deterred him from more cheerful waving.

The irate Italian looked back to the shelf with the premium pasta, another scowl on his face when his brother started singing some Japanese song from an anime show. He glanced back at his brother and then towards the package once more, his hands tensing.

Alright, no one is looking…

Feliciano stood in the line, careful not to bump into the pregnant lady in front of him. Ve~ his brother was so scary when he was angry. With the start of a little tune he had once heard, he took into account the food they had bought, categorizing which foods went into which dishes they would be preparing for the following week. Mozzarella, cilantro—Feliciano made a face at the cilantro—a baguette, tomatoes, basil, oh, we can make bruschetta! He smiled at the ingredients, pasta, pasta, pasta, pasta… the brunet then frowned a little, as he thought back to the high-quality pasta that he had wanted to buy.

The fact that they were often low on money had always worried him, and Lovino had lost his job a couple of months ago. Yet for some odd reason, whenever their income started being dangerously low and they started rationing their food, Lovino would suddenly pull money out of nowhere (since he obviously didn't have a job) and they would be back to three meals a day. He thought his brother's ability to pull money from somewhere in dire times was incredible!

The younger Vargas, in his thought process, was startled by a small tug at the back of his shirt.

"Mn?" He made a curious noise and looked down behind him. A little auburn-haired girl with one tooth missing and rags for clothes was smiling back at him. She played with her pigtails for a moment, looking a little shy, and Feliciano smiled at her cute gesture.

"Signore," she began, "could I have some money?" She reached out her small hands, but then gave a wide-eyed look that made him instantly "aww" in his mind.

With a suspicious, dramatic turn of her head left, then right, she motioned for him to get closer. He complied and bent down to her height, trying to resist giggling at her overly serious expression.

"Don't tell my mom," she whispered, "she said I shouldn't ask strangers for money."

"Well," Feliciano began with a mock whisper, "you shouldn't. You shouldn't even be talking to strangers." He smiled a bit at her nod.

"I know but, mommy has been really sad lately because she lost her job and no one wants to give us money." She looked down, a little down-trodden, but smiled again when she looked up at him, "So! I want to give mommy some money so that she won't be sad anymore!" Her smile broke into a grin that stretched across her face.

"Pleeeeeeeeease?" and her hands reached out again, cupped together as if she were going to hold water.

Feliciano was touched by the girl's intentions; however, the money wasn't his and he couldn't just give away his brother's hard working wages.

He told the girl just that.

She looked at him with such disappointment that he couldn't help giving her a small hug for consolidation.

"Ve~Don't worry, things will be alright in the end!" He explained, showing his best smile, "I'm sure that even if you didn't give your mommy any money, she would still be happy if you were by her side."

The girl frowned at his explanation, clearly not understanding what he was trying to say.

"But how can mommy be happy with just me? What can I do?"

Feliciano patted her head and grinned, "Just smile that adorable smile of yours, tell her you love her, and that'll make her very happy."

"Oh!" She exclaimed, but then jumped and put a finger to her mouth, "Shhh."

"Shhh." He responded.

"Sir. Sir?" A deep, gravely voice caught his attention.

Feliciano whirled around to realize that he was up next, what would he do? He didn't have any money with him besides a couple Euros. Where was Lovino?

"Oh, um. Ve?" He stumbled, "Oh could you um—hold on a second or two? My brother has the money, please wait." He tried to stop himself from running out of the line in panic, Lovino would kill him if he did it a second time.

"Put the groceries here. I'll take care of them."

"Oh, um. Okay." As he looked down in his basket to place items next to the cashier, he couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. He could feel the cashier's eyes on him, relentlessly.

"Ve…there." He stated, slightly meek and very unnerved. The man leered with a creepy smile and leaned closer to him.

"That will be—"

"Oi! Bastard, what are you doing staring at mio fratello for?" Feliciano cheered in his mind, thank God that Lovino came!

"Lovino! I didn't run out of the line this time." He greeted his brother, trying to ignore the man who was still staring at him.

"You shouldn't have done it in the first place, idiota." Lovino commented, and then glared back at the cashier who just leered back at him, the creepy smile erased from his face.

"I'll pay you, damn it, but your customer service sucks." After handing in the correct amount of Euros, he dragged his brother out of the shady store with grime covered plastic bags filled with their groceries.

As they walked out, he saw Feliciano waving to a cute little girl.

Afterwards, Feliciano gave a deep sigh of relief.

"Ve~ thank you Lovi! I think that man wanted to kidnap me or something."

"He sure was a creepy bastard," Lovino agreed, but after giving his brother a pat on the back, he lectured, "next time some bastard like that starts staring you down, don't just stand there and take it, idiota. Slap him or something! Or run away screaming. A manly scream of course." His brother smiled and nodded with a "Ve~"

They walked home into their shady apartment, climbing up 3 flights of stairs, and after his brother cursed all of Holy Rome trying to find the keys, they entered their home.

That day, Feliciano was in charge of unpacking the groceries, and as he rummaged through the pasta section, he paused.

There was the bag of high quality rigatoni that he had begged Lovino about!

Feliciano held onto the package and jumped up, cheering and ran to his brother's bedroom.

"Fratello, Fratello!" He bounced onto the irate Italian that was lying face down on the bed, "thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Lovino grumbled his muffled response, "Ge' off 'er me, chigi."

The bouncy 15 year old complied and after Lovino sat up, Feliciano gave his brother a tight squeeze.

"I love you, Fratello!"

"I didn't do it for you, damnit," Lovino grumbled under his breath in a sour tone, but his brother wasn't fooled since there was a tomato red blush spreading across Lovino's face.

"Of course, Lovi." Feliciano smiled happily and gave him another hug.

"I'll cook dinner tonight."

"Sure, chigi. Make sure to use up the cilantro." Feliciano made a face to that.

"You need to eat your greens, damnit." Lovino ordered.

"Ok, fratello…" his younger brother sighed before going back to the kitchen to unpack the groceries; still cheered by the pasta that he had gotten as a gift from his brother.

Lovino sat in the bedroom and laid back with a sigh of relief.

Thank God his naïve brother didn't ask how he got the pasta without going through the cashier.

Lovino remembered the morning after very well.

He was counting the amount of money they still had left, and things weren't looking up. His idiot brother was still snoozing, but Lovino had work to do.

Well, it wasn't really work; He was one of the best after all.

Leaving a note on the run-down fridge explaining to Feliciano that he was going to go into his… funds, Lovino grabbed a piece of toast, drank a cup of disgusting cheap American coffee (it was the only thing they could afford), and then made his way out of the door, making sure to put his jacket on.

He, being cautious to never be caught, always chose different areas each time he had to provide a little cash for their little apartment.

This time, he chose one of the more prominent parks, although the risk was higher because of their willingness to involve the police, they were always much more foolish with their belongings.

Lovino smirked and casually made his way into the flora rich gardens of the park.

The lemon trees make a nice touch, he commented absentmindedly, looking for a good spot. He found his hiding place between two of the fresh scented lemon trees, hiding in the shadows of the leaves. The sunlight shifted through the trees, and casted dancing shadows along the ground. As he waited, he spotted a muscular man wearing rich clothing, sporting a high-quality suit and fedora hat; two curls protruded from either side of his head. Lovino cocked his head mentally, the man looked extremely familiar, but he couldn't place it. He sure looked much older though, and being as how muscular he was, Lovino decided not to target him.

Soon after, two women were coming along the corner of the narrow grove and Lovino chose to make his move. Coming out of the trees, he brushed off any debris before pulling out a bible and adjusting the wooden cross around his neck, he buried his face in the bible, making sure to cover his features. The oldest Vargas began to walk towards their path, making sure that he would walk right into them.

The two women, Rosa and Adelaide, were chatting about the new estates their husbands had bought and how their businesses were currently running. When a young man, and quite handsome too, was reading the bible and ran straight into them, drawing exclamations from both and knocking Rosa over.

She closed her eyes, prepared for the fall but was surprised when she felt a pair of arms surround her waist and a whiff of faint lemon-like cologne assault her senses. She opened her eyes and immediately blushed at the intimacy of their position, the young brunet with a peculiar curl in his hair, but nonetheless very handsome, looked at her with concern.

"I'm so sorry, signorina." He said in a smooth voice and lifted her back to her feet before quickly stepping away, a faint blush on his cheeks, and both Rosa and Adelaide noted the wooden cross, obviously well taken care of, that hung from his neck.

"Oh," Rosa began, "I-it was nothing really."

"I must apologize, really, I—"

"Think nothing of it darling," Adelaide interrupted before he could fumble more.

"Are you sure, signorina? I could—" He blushed even further when Rosa smiled and held out a hand to stop him.

"I am sure that it is nothing, please, continue on your way." The young man looked down, the blush still there on his face, and then looked up with a very slight smile.

"May you be in god's grace, Signorine." He waved at them and with a blush, ran in the opposite direction.

The two ladies were left charmed by his purity and honesty.

On the other hand, Lovino smirked to himself as he glanced at the Euros he stole from both women. Taking a quick account as to what was there, he figured that the amount of money he "worked" for would be able to keep him and Feliciano well fed for at least a week and the women he doubted would notice the lack of a few papers lighter in their purses.

He was walking out of the groves when a hand snatched his arm and yanked him back, abruptly causing him to yelp a manly yelp and crash into a muscular figure.

"What the hell—?" Lovino didn't dare finish his sentence as he turned around to look at the rude person who grabbed him.

It was that fedora man from before. His eyes widened and he tried to stop himself from panicking. This man couldn't possibly have known what he had just done; he was far-gone from the scene by then. He had to act normal and in his role.

"What is it sir?" He tried to say, but the words were caught in his throat when the man stared down at him.

Suddenly he realized, shit, he was tall; and muscular, beefy, unnaturally like a bull. Lovino swore that the man could squash him flat. Hell, he could imagine it happening, and then he would never go back to his idiot brother and who would feed his gaping appetite for pasta? He gulped as the man glaring down at him narrowed his eyes.

Shit! Shit, shit, shit, the bastard knew! He totally knew, and now he would be sent to jail, or worse, he would be squished like a rotten zucchini or pop him like ravioli. He could feel tears watering in his eyes as he continued to wait for the man to say something—anything but that knowing leer.

The man suddenly grinned, and patted his head with a heavy, beefy, muscular hand, and then laughed a deep laugh that scared the shit out of him.

"Your grandfather would be very impressed with your skills, bambino."

What the fuck?

Then man patted his head again, ruffling his hair into a bird's nest, and then walked out of the grove, laughing like he just heard the funniest joke in the world.

Lovino could only stare as he walked away, hands in his expensive pockets.

Ah yes, Lovino traveled back to the present with a headache and he pinched his temples. That was the most mind-fucking moment in his life.

That, however, was not why he was in his old neighborhood.

It was to get away from his stupid brother and his stupid wurst-bastard who had taken over his breakfast that morning with stupid potatoes!

He fumed in his mind and tried to kick another pebble only to miss again.

"Arg!" He shouted in frustration.

"Sir!"

"Sir!"

Oh God, he thought he had lost them.

Several men and women in black suits came running up to him, their sleek black shoes clapping on the pavement.

"Sir, I thought we had lost you for a moment." Lovino scowled, "You are needed back at headquarters. The group of lackeys surrounded him.

"Fusilli," he addressed the man using his code name, "what do you need me for? I thought mio idiota fratello and Fettuccine had the newly built nurseries under control?"

His brother and his friendly assistant Fettuccine were in charge of any new buildings and architecture. In fact, most of the artistic qualities in their main buildings had been the work of his brother.

Their current project was a little charity for the large expanse of families that worked and were loyal to the Roma Famiglia. A nursery for their children where they could be dropped off and their parents could work without worry that their children would be targeted. The building itself was extremely secure and had very high-tech systems to make sure the children were safe at all times.

The Roma always took care of their own.

"That is not why we are here, Sir." Lovino made an irritated noise.

"Then what the hell is it?"

"Signore Feliciano stated that he wanted to speak with you on a personal matter."

"I bet that he wants to talk about his relationship with that bastard!" the Roma Heir spat, walking through the crowd of lackeys.

"Sir—" one of the men grabbed at his arm, "please don't go—"

"Get your hands off me!" He whirled around, pissed, "Tell Feliciano and Gramps that I won't be coming home tonight!" A limo, which was odd to see in such a poor neighborhood, zoomed by. Lovino paid no mind to it, he snapped at his "bodyguards" and strode away in a huff.

"But, Sir!"

"Don't follow me!"

"Sir!
He broke into a run.

When he wanted to escape, all of Roma knew they would never catch him.

He ran far away, lifting his legs to pump the pavement. The rest of his bodyguards watched him flee away with sighs in their hearts.

AN: So what did you think? This has been swimming around in my documents for a while so I just thought I might post it. I'm kind of hoping that this story will bud into something wonderful, since the characters seems to doing their own thing here and I am a slave to their actions.

Just so all of you know, there are going to be spots of different languages thrown in here. Spanish, Italian (as you can already tell), French, Chinese, Japanese, and so on. All languages besides english will be in italics.

This story takes place in Italy, although my researching is kind of limited. So I'm sorry if there are any mistakes in the story.

Overall, here are some translations:

Signora-Lady in Italian

Signorine-Ladies in Italian

Signore-Sir or Mr. (I'm using it as Mr. since there is a distinction between the two in English.)

Idiota-Idiot in Italian

Fratello-Brother in Italian

mio-My in Italian

Please review and I'll be super happy! And as all writers say (not really), "A happy author makes a better story." (That part is true. I swear :D )

Love you all! Thanks M for the pointers!

Have a wonderful day!

~Petaldancer