A/N: Um, wow I haven't uploaded anything in ages. Is that what going to uni and having a boyfriend do to you?!
Only kidding, but it feels good to write again! I haven't had time and literally fell into horrid writer's block because of
it. I got into writing again thanks to getting a new laptop a few months back and my boyfriend leaving for basic
training this last week. So there might be more since I feel the need to write again!
Anyways, please do enjoy the story! This one's angst-free, I promise!

A light snow fell onto the ground outside, slowly and steadily collecting itself on the already present blanket of fluff covering everything. The usually black sky had a pinkish-blue tinge to it, reflecting off the snow and making the night seem brighter than normal. It was calm as could be outside, a nice contrast to his usual hectic life. Romano sighed out, watching his breath fog up the window slightly. He pulled the red fleece blanket around him tighter, even though the inside of the house wasn't cold and the fireplace was radiating an inviting warmth from its spot in the living room. Quickly, he shot a glance towards the kitchen before returning it to the outside world of white. With so many thoughts rolling around in his mind, he wondered how the house could be so quiet, the only sound being a soft clinking coming from where Spain was. It was times like those when he loved that the Spanish nation had such a homey cabin nestled among a patch of trees a few miles away from a ski resort.

He hummed out quietly, leaning against the back of the couch and closing his eyes. Why couldn't every day be like that? Just calmly resting about, watching the world outside, and staying close enough to snuggle against—

"Comfortable enough?"

Spain.

Romano opened his eyes to see Spain standing next to him with two steaming mugs filled with hot chocolate and soft smile on his face. He nodded, taking one of the mugs, and letting the blanket unravel just enough so the Spaniard could crawl underneath it without releasing the heat that had accumulated. Settling against the Italian, Spain hummed out contently, leaving a quick kiss against Romano's lips. Romano could feel that the other's lips were warmer than usual- Spain must have already drunk from his hot chocolate. He rested his head against Spain's shoulder, pulling the blanket up. "It's better than being stuck in your regular home."

The laugh Spain let out shook Romano in his spot, making it almost impossible to take a sip from his drink. "Well, we're staying until after Christmas ends. And we can always come back." Romano sighed, wrapping his hands tightly around the mug's form. While it was true that they would have about another week in the cabin to themselves, he felt that it would be better if they could just live there instead of in the suburban area of Madrid or in Rome. The calmness that the location emitted made him wonder what it would be like if they were actually human, destined to only live about a century and without the usual loneliness and pressure that came with being a nation.

The sudden feeling of a hand on the bottom of his chin startled him out of his thoughts, calming down only when he realized it was merely Spain. He let the older nation turn his head towards him and met his eyes with a questioning look. Spain just smiled warmly at him. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"No, no, there isn't." Spain's voice was quiet, just loud enough that he could hear him without a problem, "there's nothing wrong." He ran his thumb across the edge of the younger nation's bottom lip, before moving his hand to cup his cheek gently making Romano frown the tiniest amount.

"Then why are you..."

The only response from the Spaniard was a shrug, "you seem sad. And thoughtful."

Romano let out a quiet sound, moving Spain's hand and taking a long drink from his mug before letting himself answer. "It's hard not to think when it's this quiet." He set the mug down on the window ledge, trying to ignore the feeling of cold air quickly claiming the heat that left his body. As fast as he could, he dove under the covers again, raising them up to his chin and keeping his hands curled around the edge. "You could try it sometimes."

"Mean," Spain pouted a little before letting it slide into a smile, "any reason why?" Romano shook his head, yawning as he leaned closer to Spain. It was warmer next to him anyways. "You're not even going to finish your hot chocolate? I even added extra marshmallows!" Romano merely huffed through his nose, a small smile making its appearance.

Quiet fell once again, though it was comforting—especially with the warmth that Spain gave off under the blanket. He could fall asleep and forget the world, if only for a while. It felt as if he could just live in the moment as a human, leaving behind every single thing that linked him to being a nation.

"You really like it here, don't you?" Spain's quiet voice made him open his eyes, immediately finding his green gaze locked on him. He raised an eyebrow, feeling confused as to why the Spaniard suddenly asked him so. He was sure that he had said so out loud the first time they had stayed there a few years ago. Spain reached up and over him, having to stretch to set his mug near Romano's on the ledge. He quickly sunk under the blanket, turning on his side to face Romano.

"What do you mean?"

Spain contemplated it for a bit, eyes roaming flitting up to the window behind Romano. "Well, you seem more relaxed here," he answered meeting his eyes again with a quirk in his lips, "You become more… warm, whenever we're here." Romano furrowed his eyebrow, staring at Spain with confusion. "It's like… you're more comfortable."

"Oh," he breathed out. He hadn't really noticed that his behavior changed. He looked up at the ceiling, thinking of something to say to his partner. "I guess so, it's easy to forget that we're nations here. That we have work to do."

"Well, that is one of the reasons we come here."

"I know that, smartass."

Spain laughed at the response. He smiled at Romano, nudging is nose against the other's in a slow eskimo kiss. "I know you're thinking of something, what are you thinking about?"

Romano contemplated telling him for a bit before sighing quietly, "Do you think we're lucky?" Spain looked at him with confusion, making him ball his hand around the edge of the blanket. "I mean we as in the nations."

"Us nations?" Romano nodded, "well, in some ways we aren't and in some we are."

"Just chose one of the two!"

"Wait, I wasn't done! I'm—we are lucky, you know?" Spain sighed, pulling Romano closer and settling their foreheads against each other. Romano tightened his grip on the edge of the blanket, not taking his eyes off of Spain's for a second. "We live longer, we get to try a lot of different things within the time we have. We get to see our people advance in the world. Sure, we may get all the stress of the counties, but sometimes it's worth it to see civilization change so much."

Letting it be quiet again, the Italian pressed a hand to Spain's chest, right over where his heart was, feeling the warm heat from his skin and the soft even thudding against his fingertips. Seemingly forgotten memories of feeling the same heartbeat slowed down to the point of not feeling it at all rose in his mind, making him grip the fabric of the shirt. Antonio wrapped his own hand around the slimmer one, fitting their fingers together to make Romano relax his hold. "But, what if we weren't nations? What if, like everyone else, we were just... human? Wouldn't it better if we only lived a century instead of eternity like we will?"

"If we were human, wouldn't you be asking why we couldn't live forever?"

A chuckle fell from his lips, "maybe I'd be content knowing I wouldn't live forever."

"Really? So you think humans are the lucky ones?"

"I..." Romano flushed a light pink, looking away from Spain. He didn't think that Spain would ask him that. He had thought about it before, but it felt like all of his previous thoughts had left him. He stared at Spain, waiting for the right words to appear in his mind to explain his thoughts in a way that didn't sound as if he were going crazy. "Well... it's... Damn it, I don't know. It feels like they just are."

Spain hummed quietly, closing his eyes in thought. Given the atmosphere around them, Romano was sure that Spain could have fallen asleep right then and there if he so wanted to. He smiled, "well, I guess they don't have to deal with so much paperwork and worry about politics or about having to keep their existence a secret."

"I guess… humans just seem so excited when their relationships advance," Lovino muttered, "it's like they cherish every moment just because they know that their lives are so short and they won't have another chance if they don't take it." Raising his hand up to Spain's hair so he could play with the strands, Lovino pulled himself closer. "Not that I don't like our slow paced relationship..."

"But each moment is cherished, Romano. We just have more time granted to us."

"I know, but..."

"But...?"

"…haven't you ever wondered about the fact that maybe, just maybe, we live for far too long?"

He watched Spain, bite his lip thinking the question over. He knew it was a bit pointless to ask it, most nations had probably pondered the question thoroughly over the years. How many wars had each of them seen? How many times had they seen their people suffer through hunger and violence?

"You know I have. Everyone has at some point when they were in a hard place," the Spaniard responded a little quietly. "You know how I was before, I was out there causing some of it myself. You saw that."

"Don't remind me," came the mumbled response from Romano. He sighed, taking to resting his head against the other's neck. Spain chuckled a bit, moving to wrap his arms fully around him.

"Okay, okay. How about we continue this topic later on?" Spain said, shifting in his spot. Well, it felt like he was, he wasn't really watching. "It's night, we need to go into town tomorrow, and you let our hot chocolate go cold!"

That's what he was worried about? The hot chocolate? He groaned, pushed himself up and off of Spain only to let himself drop onto him again making the other exhale loudly. "Fine." He would probably bring up the topic again at some point anyways.

"Mean," Spain winced, shifting underneath him to the point that Romano had half a thought to do it again. "And you know, I meant it when I said we were lucky, at least the two of us are. More so than the other nations."

Romano looked down at his face, "huh?" What could he had meant with that? There was no way that they could be luckier than others. If anything, nations with better leaders and economies would be luckier than them.

"Well, we have each other to rely on when the world gets to be too much, and pass the time together whenever we want. There's a connection that we share, special to just us that so many of the others would wish to have..." Placing a hand on Romano's cheek, Spain slowly rubbed his thumb underneath his eye. "As nations, we live for so long it's almost impossible to find love among the humans without having to risk our hearts being broken, without having to watch as death comes to claim them and render us unable to grow old with them. That's why as nations, we're unlucky. But the two of us don't have to go through everything alone. Sleep alone, live alone. You were even luckier having a brother."

Romano rolled his eyes at the answer, "there's more people together though. Hungary and Austria were together before us, Belgium and Netherlands are siblings, and there's-"

"One other couple? Remember the last 'party' that was hosted? There were only six people dancing during the slow songs." The Italian frowned; he hadn't noticed them being almost completely alone during that... although he had been busy being embarrassed and hiding his face in Spain's shoulder. "Everyone had their eyes on us, watching us dance close together. Don't you think some of them were wishing to be in a position similar to ours—not physically, but emotionally?"

"Unlike the other nations, we haven't had this stolen away from our grip. It's right here between us, my love. We can hold each other without worry of losing the other. We have all the time in the world to go as slow as we want with each other. When we part for long periods of time, we don't have that fear that we might never see each other again. We don't have to fear being left alone. I think that's why we're lucky, because we have each other, otherwise we would be exactly like the other nations. We'd be just as unlucky as they are: having to watch humans they're close to be ripped away from them. Having to suffer through things alone. You might not have noticed because you've always had someone. Be it me, Veneziano, or your grandfather."

He frowned, focusing on Spain's eyes. He couldn't get anything from them other than love and happiness. Still, he couldn't fight back the smile that overtook his features. "You're a giant fucking sap, you know that?" With that, Romano stood up and started making his way towards the bedroom.

"But, you love me anyways!" Spain called out. Romano stopped at the door to the bedroom, leaning against the frame to look at the other.

"Just come to bed already."

~ooXoo~

"What's in here?"

"You have to open it to find out!" Spain said, smiling at him and motioning for him to open up the small present that he currently had in his hand. Romano made a small sound and slowly undid the silver bow on top of it.

The box itself was very small, barely bigger than his palm and wrapped in a blue patterned paper. Spain must have gotten it gift wrapped, he wasn't this good at gift preparation. After setting the ribbon aside, he tugged at one of the sides where the tape was, getting it to open up and unfolding the paper just enough to let a black box slide out into his lap.

He raised an eyebrow, shooting a look at Spain before picking it up and opening it. His eyes widened before looking up the other, mouth trying and failing to get words out. "Wh-what?"

Spain laughed shyly, blushing enough that it was visible across his cheeks. "I- well, I started thinking about what you said during our little Christmas get-away… and even though we can't really get married as countries, we can using our human names. I already asked my boss about it and everything." Romano was still staring at him, no doubt making him nervous since he started to rub the back of his neck. "Ah, that is if you want to… It-it can just be a promise ring type of thing… you know? Just to commit ourselves to each other?"

Romano smiled at him, looking down to pick up the ring. It was simple, a two tone gold band. The middle was silver, etched with a crisscross pattern that glinted off the lights in the room. "You idiot, that's not how you ask someone to marry you…" He moved closer to Spain, moving the other's legs so he could between them and rest his back against the other's chest. Still smiling softly, he placed the ring in Spain's hand. Spain got the message immediately and grabbed Romano's left hand to place it on his finger.

"I wasn't exactly expecting you to say no, though…" he answered, resting his head on Romano's shoulder. He muttered 'cocky' under his breath, making Spain whine quietly. "I'm not cocky! I just… love you so much and know you feel the same way…"

"You went through the fucking trouble to ask your boss about this… you…"

"Think of it as the one day we both get to be human," Spain said, lifting Romano's left hand up and kissing it. "That day we won't be Spain and Italy Romano, we'll be Antonio and Lovino."

Romano closed his eyes trying to imagine it. A single day where they could be normal humans. No nation tasks, no bosses, no worries, just themselves. "Antonio and Lovino…" he whispered to himself. He liked the way it felt on his tongue, the sound making him feel really warm on the inside.

Turning around to face Spain, Romano found him smiling brightly. Spain silently raised his hands to Romano's cheeks, giving him a kiss before speaking. "I'm still so lucky to get to spend so much time with you, more than a mere century. But I'm more than glad to grant you the wish to be human. Even if it's just for one day."

He just smiled, leaning forward to give Spain a longer kiss. One that he hoped would show the other just how much he loved him. He could be horrible with words, which he knew he was. Especially when it came to his own emotions. The best he could do to get across to Spain was to show him. Feeling the tight squeeze that Spain was giving him, it was definitely working.

Romano felt like laughing from the sheer happiness he felt at that moment. Because luckily enough, they had each other to hold for as long as forever was.