Dedication: To a lovely friend I met on tumblr; I would have probably never even finished the first chapter if it hadn't been for her wonderful words of encouragement and entertaining RP scenarios. No names needed, she knows who she is! Thank you so much for everything. (:
Circean Reality
Chapter Two: Betwixt
After much stalling, Romano is now standing in front of his classroom. His hands are sweating, the stack of papers are now a crumbled mess in his nervous grip. The nation takes in a deep breath, raising his unoccupied hand to take hold of the doorknob Romano swore was mocking him.
'Tch, what am I so afraid of? I'm a fucking half-nation, World History has nothing on me! Hell, girls will probably wet themselves the second they lay eyes on me; Hah, I should have worn something ugly to protect my other selves' virgin body.' And with renewed vigor Romano gives a cocky grin, ready to blow away everyone with his extensive knowledge of Italian history that most history majors could only hope to achieve in ten lifetimes; he turns the knob halfway before he is interrupted, quite rudely, by the bell.
"Fuck."
Romano hears shuffling on the other side of the door, he dodges out of the way, careful to not get trampled by the overenthusiastic teens chatting away to their next class. Romano is relieved that not one of the many humans exiting seemed to recognize him as he shuffles in to at least greet the teacher he would be spending who knows how many mornings with.
"Hello, you're quite early. Most kids tend to stay away from their next class for as long as possible on the first day." The man sitting behind the desk says, Romano cannot help but look right into his eyes, they are stern but his voice is dripping with mirth as he regards Romano's uncomfortable form awkwardly blocking the room's only doorway.
"I. Ahh." Romano's brain shuts down when the man stands up, looking even more menacing as he towers over the teen. The teacher silently walks up to Romano with a slightly worried look as the teen nation is stock still. Before he is able to voice any type of concern, Romano shoves his stack of papers towards the man's chest. The teacher with the stern eyes lets out a bit of a surprised noise and accepts the crumpled pieces. He skims over all of them with a 'hm' escaping every other shift of his eyes.
"So you're… Lovino Vargas?" The teacher looks up from the papers in his hands fast enough to catch a hesitant nod from Romano. "..And you're…" The teacher's words drifting off as he gets a pensive look, wrinkles appearing on his forehead as he lowers his gaze back down to the note from the principal.
"Call me Romano."
"Huh?" The sudden outburst from Romano startles the teacher back from his thoughts, garnering his full attention back to the teen that wanted anything but that.
"I said: Call me Romano, I don't like 'Loreno' or whatever you called me." Romano replied, more confidence in his voice than when he first entered the room. The teacher only looked to grow more worried at this statement.
"Well Romano," Romano could hear the hesitation dripping from the teacher's voice at having to call him his real fucking name and it pissed him off. "I'm the history teacher and this is World History; you didn't miss much, all we did was introduce ourselves and I passed out," He turns to his desk, grabbing a stack of stapled papers, "this syllabus. Be sure to read It with your parent and return it by Friday signed to get credit."
The man cuts anything else he was thinking of saying as students finally start to pile in and the warning bell goes off. He writes another pass for Romano to get to his next class. The History teacher introduces himself before Romano leaves the room, but the whole time Romano can only wonder how humans can do this every weekday for nine out of twelve months a year.
-Betwixt-
Lovino was elated.
He wakes up to a grandeur mansion only ever admired on the Travel Channel, his pajamas are made of material one can only associate with the filthy rich or filthy pretty freaking good looking models, and best of all his stupid little brother and dumb as fuck grandfather were nowhere in sight to annoy him! It was truly a dream come true for the human teen laying on the Queen sized bed in Romano's Sicilian mansion.
Not once did the boy question his surroundings or think about exploring the unknown. Lovino spends all morning and most of the afternoon rolling on top of the feathery pillows and encircling himself with the smooth sheets, digging his face into the most amazing feeling in the world.
Money.
-Betwixt-
It is now advisement and Romano cannot for the life of him remember a single thing that occurred in any of his first three actual classes, the whole morning becoming a jumbled mess of faces, although the nation recognized some teens of Italian ancestry, a tingle in his bones whenever one of his people bumped into him in the crowded hallways.
Romano repeats the action of passing his note to the advisement coach, not even caring to look up at another person's confused expression for the nth time this day.
"Hello there-" 'Here it comes.' he dreads, "Romano! Just come to me if you have any worries! I'm Mrs. Héderváry and I'll be your advisor for this school year!" The woman's' cheery tone surprises Romano, almost scaring him at how easy it is to imagine the words smiling at him; Even worse, Romano can recognize that voice a lot easier than he should in a human school.
"Oh, but please call me Mrs. H! 'Héderváry' sounds so stuffy and totally old lady-ish, I'm only in my late twenties you know!" The woman keeps talking but Romano is barely paying it any mind, instead he looks up; his eyes are wide as he takes in the face that most certainly did not belong.
"Ms. Hungary?"
-Betwixt-
It is already past four in the afternoon and Lovino is starving. Lying in bed all day is fun, but the teen was still human and food was still a necessity for his survival.
Lovino groans as he leaves the comfort of his mattress, running his right hand under the silk pajama top to rub his growling stomach. A hiss leaves his mouth as his feet make contact with the chilly marble floor. Once the teen's feet become accustomed to the temperature, he makes quick work of the bedroom, instead paying more attention once he enters the long hallway, taking note of which door he just exited to make sure he only uses one of the many bedrooms he encounters through a stairway-searching fiasco. Finding the kitchen was going to be more work than he had imagined.
-Betwixt-
"Hungary?" Mrs. Héderváry is now looking at Romano with curiosity. "Oh, is that what you would rather call me? I'm fine with that!" She chuckles just a bit here, "I am actually an immigrant from Hungary! How did you know? It was the sexy accent, wasn't it? Well, let me tell you: I'm married! There's no way you're my type either honey. I like my men legal." Romano just stares at her now, not knowing what to say. He takes a second to collect everything the familiar stranger said and replies with a quick, "Oh. Okay," taking a random seat near the middle of the classroom, waiting for the short class to begin.
Romano does not care to look at the students in any of his classes, just wanting to get the day over with without a hitch, but now that he has encountered what he believes to be another nation Romano can't help but to look up for just a moment; A tinge of fear in what, or who, he just might find.
As he scans the front of the room, he lets out a sigh in relief; everyone in front of him was just an ordinary human he had never met.
"Alright guys, the bell will ring in just a minute but I wanted to introduce myself real quick! I am Mrs. Héderváry and I will guide all of you young ones through the path of life. I'm pretty sure most of you already know what advisement is, so could one of you ex-" The bell rings, cutting off the woman for only a second, "explain real quick?" Romano does not know if Mrs. Héderváry had done that on purpose, but he was grateful for her question. He could guess what Graphic Design, Physics, and Calculus were, but never in his life had the nation heard of a course called 'advisement.'
"OH! Me! Me! I can Mrs. H!" A boisterous voice breaks through the short silence after Mrs. Héderváry question and Romano is back to hyperventilating mode.
-Betwixt-
Lovino finally comes upon a staircase after what feels like hours; He is surprised at how wide the steps are, and he cannot help but think how a giant must live there with the way he has to pretty much split his legs completely apart to reach each one.
It takes Lovino longer than it should to reach the bottom, but before he is able to jump off the staircase he is interrupted by a knock on the door only ten feet away.
Lovino groans and picks up his pace, not minding the fact that he is technically not in his house and thus should not be opening the door.
The knocking becomes more intense as Lovino struggles to unlatch and open the twenty thousand locks adorning the side of the door. This only serves to anger the teen who takes his anger on the door with a mad kick.
"Shit! Whatever bastard that's causing this ruckus better learn to fucking wait, it's not my fault I got stuck in a paranoid giant's mansion." Lovino grunts.
Once the door is successfully open, Lovino is assaulted by a taller body.
"Roma! Did you miss boss? I'm sorry for ignoring you the other day, it was just that the novela I was watching was really at its climax and I couldn't miss the ending even if my economy was crashing!" The male holding Lovino in his arms yells, rubbing his cheek with the side of Lovino's head.
"Urk! The hel-Who are you? Get off of me!" Lovino panics and begins to yell, "Molester! Homo! Get your hands off!"
"Ahh, what are you talking about Roma? It's me: boss!" The male lets go of Lovino, giving the teen a clear view of the strangers' profile.
The male is definitely taller than Lovino by a couple inches; his chocolate locks curl up at the ends, giving him a childish air; and his eyes are such a vibrant green that Lovino feels like they could pierce his soul with no difficulty. As the male stands in front of him, something in Lovino's mind goes off.
"Ah! You're that fucker Carriedo from the soccer club!" Lovino jabs an angry finger at the confused boss, "What the hell are you doing in my dre-no, wait, since you're here… This must be a nightmare!"
Lovino just wanted to eat, sleep, and sing the day away; it seems like even his dream refuses to grant him peace.
Hi.
Fun fact: This is now my longest published fanfic on this site; You can tell it's hard for me to write long stories, but I'm really trying for this one! So please leave suggestions and comments for me, they really drive me to write (:
Not as long as last chapter, but it's really just getting the necessary stuff out of the way.
Ahah, hopefully next chapter is more interesting?
Spasibo za vnimanie!
A big thank you to Running Lynx for teaching me the Russian phrase!