Lovina sighed as she buttoned the red coat around her chest.
Turning to give Isabel an annoyed look, the Spaniard in question could only grin sheepishly, her face paler than usual.
"Thank you for doing this cariña." Isabel said and Lovina gave a light scoff, turning back around to tug at her neck.
"Why do you even wear a turtleneck? It's freaking hot in Spain!" She complained and Isabel shrugged.
"Uniform..?" She suggested before coughs wracked her frame.
Lovina frowned, and she wanted to argue more, but she had already agreed to her girlfriend's ridiculous plan
-...-
When Isabel had called her asking for a favor, voice nasally from a cold, Lovina immediately knew she couldn't say no to her. Isabel had contracted a cold (most likely from how down her economy had been more recently) on the day she absolutely could not have afforded to, causing her to have the idea that "Hey Roma, you're around my height right? And if we put enough effort into your appearance you'll look like me, right?"
Of course Lovina had been lost at first.
"Che cosa? Oi Spain, what are you on about?" She had asked, patiently waiting for the coughs on the other side to subside.
"Hey, are you sick? Is that why you're having such a stupid idea?" Her question was only replied by more coughs.
"Lo siento Romano, I'm a bit sick right now but I really can't afford to. My boss will kill me if I miss my meetings." Isabel said and Lovina couldn't help but think that saying she was just 'a bit sick' was an understatement.
The Italian thought it over for a minute, chewing softly on her bottom lip before she sighed.
"Fine, I'll be over." The phone erupted in loud cheers and thankful exclamations before Isabel triggered a particularly hard coughing fit.
"Idiota! If you're sick don't use so much energy! Go to bed, damn!" Lovina said as she pulled on her coat, opening the door to let the hot Italian sun bathe her in its rays.
She listened to Isabel's weak chuckle over the phone, a fist in her pocket in search for loose change.
"Si, si, I will. Gracias Lovina." Isabel said and Lovina playfully rolled her eyes though the other girl couldn't see.
"Yeah, yeah." She replied.
-...-
When Lovina had actually gotten to Isabel's house she was shocked.
"Oi, Isabel? What is this?" She called, her voice echoing in the seemingly empty house.
The building itself was a mess. There were sheets everywhere and there was a half-eaten breakfast on the dining table. Not only that, miscellaneous things were strewn all around the tables (even floors sometimes!) which contributed to the messy appearance.
Judging by the location in which these things were, it seemed as if Isabel had stumbled down the stairs, fell at the bottom, struggled to retrieve her legs from the blanket, and proceeded to make a bigger mess in the kitchen.
Lovina sighed, moving to the kitchen to properly put the food away. Who knows how long that poor butter had been sitting on the counter.
"Isabel?" She called once again, scraping the breakfast into a container.
Coughing from upstairs was the only response in the otherwise quiet home.
Lovina sighed but finished her task in the kitchen. She bundled up the blanket in her arms and folded it on her way up the stairs, the blanket a neat square by the time Lovina had opened Isabel's door.
"Isabel?" She called and was immediately greeted by the sight of Isabel coughing.
"For fuck's sake, can't you take care of yourself?" Lovina said with a joking tone, approaching her girlfriend and raising a hand to her forehead.
Isabel giggled in response and smiled serenely when the cool hand was placed against her forehead.
"I can, I'm just a bit worse today." She said and Lovina scoffed, a mumbled 'sure' under her breath.
"So what idea do you have so your boss doesn't kill you?" Lovina asked, pouring water into a cup from a pitcher nearby and placing it on the bedside table.
"Well I was thinking that you could substitute for me." Isabel hummed, and Lovina shot her a skeptical look.
"Substitute? You know we can't do substitutions for important country meetings." She said and Isabel shook her head.
"Not in that way, do you remember what I first asked you?" Isabel asked with a wide grin, eagerly watching Lovina's expression turn from confusion to realization before displeasure.
"And you don't think they would notice the difference?" Lovina sarcastically asked and Isabel shook her head.
"Not too much." She said and Lovina rolled her eyes but conceded.
"Fine, where are your clothes?" Lovina asked and Isabel sheepishly grinned.
"Downstairs." "You tried to go anyway didn't you?" Lovina sighed and shook her head at the Spaniard's response; looking away and acting innocent.
-...-
Lovina had gone down and started redressing herself when she heard another bout of coughing.
"Isabel? Have you taken your medicine yet?" She called.
The coughs abruptly stopped. Silence.
Lovina shook her head and grumbled, her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.
After properly dressing up and arranging her hair, Lovina headed to the kitchen to scavenge for medicine Isabel could possibly need.
Nations couldn't actually use medicine, it doesn't work on them like it does for humans, but medicine for symptoms did.
So after retrieving a few medicine packets the Italian returned upstairs.
When Isabel saw Lovina dressed in her clothes she couldn't help but smile. Her girlfriend looked adorable!
"Don't forget to take your medicine dummy." Lovina said, placing the medicine by the cup on the table for Isabel's easy access.
Isabel practically beamed.
"Gracias tesoro mio." She said, leaning over to kiss Lovina's cheek.
Lovina immediately turned red and gave Isabel a light glare.
"If you're kissing me do it properly." She said and Isabel pouted.
"I don't want you to get sick, too, cariña." Isabel said but was silenced when Lovina brushed her hair away from her forehead, planting a gentle kiss there before capturing her lips in a tender kiss.
Isabel was surprised but quickly melted into the kiss, her cheeks blooming bright red from the attention. When Lovina broke the kiss, she whined.
Lovina snickered before poking one of Isabel's bright red cheeks.
"Your cheeks are bright red." She teased and Isabel's pout returned two fold.
"Yours are too." Isabel replied and Lovina playfully rolled her eyes, knowing she won't win a conversation about her cheeks.
"Whatever, when and where are your meetings?" Lovina asked and Isabel brightened up a bit.
-...-
After discussing what to do when so and so does this and that along with other details, Lovina was finally ready to start her day as Spain.
"Cariña! Aren't you forgetting something?" Isabel suddenly said when Lovina turned to leave.
Lovina turned back to her with an inquisitive look, an eyebrow raised.
"What?" She asked and Isabel beckoned her over, a bright grin on her face.
Lovina sighed but smiled, approaching her silly girlfriend.
"Yes?" She asked before she was pulled down by the neck, a quick peck landing on her lips.
"Have a good day at work sweetie," Isabel cooed, cheeks a bright red though one look in her eyes said she didn't regret it.
Lovina's face exploded with color at the amount of love and devotion in Isabel's eyes, her curl crinkling and forming a small heart.
"You- I-" Isabel continued to gaze into Lovina's eyes lovingly, a soft smile on her face as she watched her girlfriend flounder.
Lovina finally huffed. She walked over and kissed Isabel's head.
"See you honey." Isabel practically glowed at the endearment.
Lovina was already at the bottom of the stairs when she heard someone call her name.
Looking back up, Lovina was met with Isabel's smiling, blanket-clad form.
"I forgot to tell you." She said softly before lifting a hand to point at the right side of her hair.
Lovina raised a brow but mimicked the action, her eyes widening as she realized what the other meant.
Lovina flushed with slight embarrassment, nodding her head in thanks.
"Grazie." She said and received a flying kiss in response.
After taking care of her curl, Lovina finally left.
-...-
The moment Lovina got to the meeting place she had to stop and take deep breaths. From this point on she'd have to act like her usually cheerful girlfriend.
Lovina looked up at the official building, sizing it up as if it were the building she was going to fight before finally walking in.
She was two steps up when she suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder. Lovina turned around only to find that the person who had tapped her was a rather annoyed looking official.
"Crap." She thought. "Already messed up."
"Spain, why weren't you replying when I was calling you? I've been calling your name for a few minutes now." The man said and Lovina mentally whacked herself on the head.
Someone had been calling her and she hadn't noticed? Genius.
To be fair she wasn't used to being called Spain.
"Ah, lo siento. I guess I spaced out a bit." Lovina sheepishly laughed, voice pitched to imitate her girlfriend's.
At the scrutinizing gaze the man was giving her, Lovina broke a few coughs.
"Sorry, I'm a bit sick right now." She gave another sheepish smile.
The man raised a brow but nodded his head. "No wonder you're a bit pale. Let's walk up."
Walking beside the man, Lovina listened to the issues he was bringing up. She soon realized he'd be a part of the first meeting by the way he was talking and made sure to remember his points in case they came up in the meeting.
The first meeting was fairly simple as they discussed what problems they should focus on more as a country and Lovina had the notes Isabel wrote for the meeting.
"Speaking of, the UN issued the decrease of olive production late last night." A member suddenly brought up. "Olive production is a big portion of our economy, there are chances that downsizing it will just make it worse."
Other members mumbled their agreements as Lovina looked through the notes, a slight panic settling in.
"Spain, what should we do?" The olive man suddenly asked and Lovina finished looking through the notes, her mind scrambling to think of something.
Lovina licked her lips as she thought about the issue. She really hopes what she says doesn't affects Spain too much.
"It isn't something we can ignore since the UN ordered it," She started, a thoughtful look on her face. "We'll have to think of something soon, but I don't think we can solve this now." The others nodded in agreement.
New talk about what they could do to possibly bridge the gap the downsizing of olive would do to the economy started and Lovina mentally pat herself on the back.
-...-
The next following meetings followed easily enough and the last one finished right around 3 pm. Honestly, Lovina was thankful the meetings were finally over. Isabel could use this 'uniform' as much as she wanted to but there was no way Lovina would ever get used to wearing so many layers in Spain everyday.
Just as Lovina finished her late lunch (a measly sandwich. She needs more sustenance than this!) she noticed a woman looking a bit lost at the doors of the building. Deciding that approaching the woman and helping her wouldn't inconvenience her, Lovina walked towards the woman.
To her surprise, the woman recognized her and seemed relieved.
"Ms. Isabel!" The woman said and smiled. "I was lucky to find you. If you have time, would you like to discuss the details for your dinner?"
Lovina's surprise increased. Isabel had a planner for meals?
"The Taurasi Radici you had ordered has finally arrived and other preparations are ready to be made. We were recently told that a very fresh batch of red carnations and lilies have been delivered and it'd be advisable if we used them as quickly as possible." The woman spoke rapidly with too much new information for Lovina to properly process. "Also-"
"Wait wait wait wait wait, sorry, excuse me, what is this for?" Lovina suddenly asked and the woman looked at her with a surprised expression.
"Your special night mam, surely you wouldn't have forgotten about such a thing?" She asked and Lovina raised a brow but then wiped her expression clean and smiled.
"No, sorry, my mind has just been occupied with the recent meetings. Please continue." The woman, Clara (Lovina only noticed her ID now), nodded and continued.
Seems like Isabel's been keeping something from her.
-...-
Isabel sniffed as she watched some movie on DIVA. It was something about a woman working so hard she doesn't see the perfect man in front of her? Whatever.
Looking at the clock, Isabel realized that the meetings should be done by now. Even better, her 'sickness' had gone down! Deciding that now was as good a time as ever, Isabel called Lovina.
The line beeped for a while before it was finally picked up.
"Pronto." Isabel had to smile at the sound of her girlfriend's voice. "Hola Lovina! How were the meetings?"
A huff from the other side along with the faint sounds of something being shuffled before a reply.
"It was fine, there were a couple things discussed that you didn't have notes on so I hope you don't mind." Isabel chuckled.
"That's to be expected, that's fine. What were they?" She asked and Lovina proceeded to fill her in, Isabel nodding her head even though Lovina wouldn't see it.
"I wrote it down, I can give you your notes back later." Lovina said and Isabel nodded again.
"Yeah, I appreciate what you did for me today Lovina. Gracias." She said and Lovina hummed.
"Are you well enough tonight?" Lovina suddenly asked.
Isabel blinked in surprise but replied.
"Yeah, I'm feeling much better than this morning. Why?" Isabel asked and Lovina ignored her question as she continued.
"Dress up nice, we're eating out tonight." Isabel froze.
On the other side of the phone, Lovina chuckled. If Isabel's reaction was an indication to anything, it meant that she knew Lovina had found out.
"Ahh, well.." Isabel mumbled, her face a bright red. The surprise for a special dinner had been ruined (she wished she could've been there to see Lovina's expression!) but at least the real surprise for the night hadn't been spoiled yet.
"Yeah, of course." Isabel gave up. Lovina already knew, no use in trying to hide the (supposed to be) surprise. "See you there?" Her question prompted another chuckle from Lovina.
"I should be asking you that." Lovina said. "Yes, I'll see you there."
The call ended and Isabel pulled herself up from the couch. She closed the tv as she passed by.
There were more important things to do than watch some chick flick after all.
-...-
To say Isabel was only a bit nervous would be an understatement. Standing here right now in front of a fancy restaurant, Isabel feels as if her heart might just stop.
Hearing the clack of shoes approaching her, Isabel turned and her heart really did stop.
Lovina walked towards her and the moon shone down so gently on her she looked like an angel.
But it was her eyes. Her bright amber eyes that glowed brightly in the night, searing straight into Isabel's soul along with her adorable smile.
Isabel is half sure she died and ascended to heaven.
"Isabel?" Lovina's voice broke through to her and suddenly she could breath, her heart beating again.
"Lovina!" She exclaimed much too loudly, causing her to cringe. Coughing lightly to try and shake her embarrassment, she turned back to an amused looking Lovina.
"Anyway, would you like to go in?" Isabel said and Lovina nodded, slotting her hand into the other's as a small blush bloomed on her features.
Cold air blew against their faces the moment they walked in. The restaurant was lavishly decorated and the employee's were all charmingly dressed.
Approaching the woman at the podium, Isabel couldn't help but feel a bit nervous something- anything- might go wrong.
"Welcome, do you have a reservation?" The woman asked and Isabel nodded, a nervous smile on her face.
"Reservation under Fernandez." Isabel said and the woman looked for the name and reservation before nodding.
"Right this way please." The woman said and the two countries followed, Lovina looking around the restaurant with interest.
"Here's your table," The woman lead them to a table by a big window, allowing the moon's glow to illuminate the table with a mystic glow.
"A waiter will be with you shortly for your order," She finished with a smile before she gave a slight bow and walked away.
Lovina sat down and watched Isabel zone out as she stared out the window.
"Isabel," Lovina called and she suddenly snapped into focus.
"R-right! Sorry, I was thinking." Isabel gave a nervous laugh before sitting down.
Lovina watched Isabel's eyes jump all over the place before settling on hers. Even then, she quickly moved her gaze and Lovina smiled.
"Il mio amore, what are you so nervous about?" Lovina asked and Isabel's sight snapped back to hers.
Isabel inhaled deeply before releasing it all in a shaky laugh.
"I just am I suppose." She answered and Lovina shook her head. She'd tell her in her own time.
The clinking of other diner's utensils filled the background as silence settled over the two, though not necessarily an uncomfortable one.
Just as Lovina opened her mouth to discuss their orders, she felt someone hold her hand.
Looking up from the menu into bright, determined, green eyes Lovina was surprised.
"Lovina Vargas." Isabel started, her gaze unwavering. "I've known you for a very long time. You grew up under my care and I've watched you change into the lovely woman you are today. I know your fears and secrets and you know mine. And now I'm asking you..."
Lovina gaped as Isabel stood up and moved closer to her, kneeling before her.
"I'm asking you, not as Spain and South Italy, not as two countries, but as people. And as a person.." Isabel took out a small box from her purse as Lovina watched in amazement and awe, tears filling her eyes.
"Would you do me the honor, and make me the happiest person alive as we live the rest of our years together, of becoming my wife?"
Lovina felt like she was in a dream. Like her soul was drifting away from this exact moment by how surreal it was, but she knew there was no way this could be fake.
Not the love in her eyes. Not the fear.
"Lovina Vargas, will you marry me?" Isabel asked and opened the box. And this time, Lovina couldn't keep in her gasp.
The ring was simple but beautiful. Something that fit the both of them perfectly.
By this time their proposal had caused a commotion but there was no way Lovina would be embarrassed about the attention. Not now of all times. Not in this special moment they were having right now.
"Yes! Isabel, yes! Si!" Lovina cried and threw herself at Isabel, the both of them crying from joy.
Others clapped their hands and others cheered but they weren't given any attention as Isabel pulled back and took the ring from the box.
Slowly, carefully, she slipped the ring onto Lovina's ring finger.
Together, they admired it. Their eyes shimmering like gems from joy and tears at the magical moment.
"Ti amo." Lovina whispered hoarsely, as if she had been screaming for hours.
Tears slipped down Isabel's voice as she whispered back, their voices piercing through the noise of the night.
"Te amo."