Recap: A group of pirates was caught in an untimely storm suffers the loss of one of their crewmates.
Location: Venice, North Italy. Unknown amount of time after the storm. (but probably at least several days)
Italy wandered the canals and sidewalks of his town, trying to find something useful to occupy his time with. He had recently been chewed out by Germany for doing something wrong on the battlefield (as usual) and was becoming vexed by his realization of how very useless he actually was. He casually swung around a corner, now heading for a beach.
Ve~ Germany was really mad this time. I wish there was some way to prove I'm not completely useless. I fought off mean Mr. Turkey back when he still wore that funny hat, so why can't I fight England?
Occupied by these thoughts, Italy didn't notice as he wandered away from the inhabited part of the beach. Almost robotically, he scaled a pile of rocks, sitting down on the flattest one he could find. A stiff breeze blew in from the open sea, most likely from the far off storm that just barely showed over the horizon. Italy sat there for about a half an hour, during which the storm got closer, heavy rain now visible. He wasn't too worried, as the weather had been dry recently, and the canals were very low. Italy stood up, clambering down the rocks to get back to his home. He was about halfway down the pile when he slipped, falling the next three or so feet to the gravelly sand.
He didn't hit sand.
Italy lay stunned on whatever he had landed on, trying to get the air back that had been forced out of his lungs from the landing. As soon as he recovered, he flipped over, jumping off of the poor person he had landed on. He did not expect the twisted green semi-human shape clutching an axe beneath him.
"Wahhh! Don't eat meeee!" Italy cried out, hiding behind a rock. When the thing didn't respond, he grew more confident, shuffling over to the body. "Hey, are you okay? What are you? Are you going to eat me?" The rapid-fire questions went unanswered. "Are you dead?" The last question was answered bodily, as Italy went to poke the 'corpse' and it twitched violently, sending him for shelter behind the rock. The body did not move again after that point, and Italy began formulating a plan in his head. If I can help this thing, maybe it will help me fight Britain! And it might prove that I'm not as useless as they think I am. Smiling, Italy hefted the thing on his back, taking hidden alleys to get to his home
~0~0~0~Several Hours later~0~0~0~
Italy had scrambled around his house frantically as soon as he got home, leaving his new charge in the entrance. He was always well stocked on medical supplies, be it gauze or painkillers. Though… Italy thought, the creature doesn't have any visible injuries. A Band-Aid won't stop internal bleeding, and I don't have anything to wake it up. I can't take it to a doctor or a vet. What do I do if it dies? Cringing at the thought, Italy immediately turned around, still carrying several first-aid items. Dropping the burden on the end of his couch, Italy ran to the entryway, where the thing hadn't moved.
"I'm so sorry for leaving you here!" It wasn't like it could hear him, "I don't know how to help you though." After dragging the thing to the living room, he sat down next to it, tracing patterns on the carpet sadly. He was interrupted shortly afterwards by the crunch of footsteps on his driveway. Italy had to make a split-second decision on whether or not to show his allies the creature. He decided against it, and dragged the thing over to a closet, standing it up inside and closing the door. The soft thump of something sliding down the inside wall of the closet was covered by someone knocking on his front door.
"Itary, I have a few new plans to discuss with you. Are you home?"
"Ve! I'll be right there!" Italy ran to open the door, where the Asian nation was waiting, umbrella in hand.
"Ah, hero Itary. I hope I didn't interrupt you with whatever you were doing, but Germany has drawn up a few new war plans and requested I go over them with you while he starts fighting France."
"Okay, come in! Sorry about the mess, I just missed the storm."
Japan hummed in acknowledgement, removing his shoes. As he was bent over, a flash of green caught his eye. A flattened egg-shaped thing, about the size of a dime, was lying on the ground. Japan picked up the token, a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind that he knew what it was.
"Itary, what sort of seashell is this?"
Italy looked at the green object, flinching a bit when he saw it. "Oh, I found it on the beach today." Not quite a lie. "I think it's a scale from a big fish, but it was pretty, so I decided to take it home. If you want it, you can have it, there's probably more where I found it."
Japan noticed the flinch; the way Italy wouldn't quite meet his eyes during the whole rant; the nervous glances to a closet door. "Very well, I appreciate it. Now, about the war plans." Japan set several rolled up papers on Italy's end table. "I think we should-Itary, did you hurt yourself?"
Damn. Japan noticed the bandages. Italy berated himself for not stowing them in the closet. "I accidentally dropped a knife on my foot when I was cutting onions. I guess I went a little overboard with the medicine." He laughed nervously.
Japan looked at his friend. Something was definitely off today. "Perhaps I should come back rater, if you have recently taken painkilrers." Italy definitely looked too relieved at this, but he tensed up again when something thumped over in the vicinity of the ever-closed closet door. "Your cat seems to be rowdy today." Japan said with a sly smile. "I'll return in a few days. We can discuss war plans then." The short nation, stopping only to put on his shoes, walked out the door. Italy wondered if he suspected, but couldn't spare too much time on the thought.
He wrenched open the closet door, only to have the unconscious dragon fall forward, knocking him to the ground. The entire thing was humorous, but the large battle-axe that fell after it was far from funny. Italy screamed as he rolled out of the way, barely avoiding the sharp blade as it plunged into the floor.
The roll flipped their positions, lodging the dragon's horns into the floor. Italy was suddenly in a position to see just how threatening it looked. Brown hair, stiff with salt gave it a dusty, raged appearance. Two sharp fangs could be seen in the open mouth as the creature breathed, smelling of sulfur. The scales, small as they were, all had a sharp point. Not really wanting to think that this creature he was supposed to take care of could kill him, Italy turned away from it, meeting tired, scared eyes in the reflection from the axe.
God, he thought, I look terrible. Not in his right state of mind, he leaned over to look closer at the axe. So high strung, maybe this is what Germany was talking about. He leaned closer, accidentally pressing his knee into the dragon's elbow, jostling it into bending. The clawed hand landed on his leg, causing him to jolt sideways into the axe, effectively knocking himself unconscious.
~0~0~0~around dawn the next morning~0~0~0~
Italy woke with a muffled moan, probably from having slept in such an uncomfortable position for hours. He untwisted himself with a crack from stiff joints, his wits not completely gathered, and wandered into the kitchen to make coffee.
After the coffee, he walked back into the living room, pausing at the sight of the still unconscious dragon. Now that he wasn't frantically trying to prevent people from seeing it, Italy found that he was much calmer and able to think in a straight line. He took one look at the axe, decided that he would have to get someone to help him remove it. The dragon was a different matter, so Italy mustered his strength, lift-dragging the creature over to the couch.
It remained like that for several days, and Italy began to wonder if it would ever wake up. He was answered, when he woke up one morning to the creature deliriously and weakly struggling to pry the axe out of the floor. It fell back after a few moments, and somehow noticing Italy standing there in his nightshirt turned to him.
"Can you help me?"
Italy jumped, not expecting a voice like that, very quiet, very… "You're a girl?"
~#~#~#~
I rewrote everything after Japan leaves, to help the plot along.
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