My white rose chapter 2
Thanks for the support! :D
Warning: Romano's mouth.
And there is mostly Hetalia in this chapter and DC won't be appearing until the next chapter or so. There will be references to DC ((Episode 304 and Movie 13)) I hope no one gets bored with this chapter. Just trying to set the mood for the story.
"Ve...Germany are you sure Romano said he was coming home?" Veneziano looked out the window for the umpteenth time. He had taken a private jet home, dragging the German along. He'd thought his fratello had too since it would be the fastest route home. But the house was dark and empty, no Romano in sight. He had even called his boss and the man said he hadn't seen Romano at all today.
"He said he was coming home late..." Germany tried to reassure the auburn but he knew it was useless. Glancing at the clock and it was already past one in the morning. This was beyond late.
"Ve, what if something happened to him?" Veneziano whimpered in fear, clutching the window sill nervously.
"No, he's probably fine; maybe he didn't take a private jet and took a late flight." Germany, deep in his heart knew that wasn't the case. Where could the other half of Italy be? He was seriously getting annoyed by Romano's out of character behavior. To his surprise, he liked it better when the Italian cursed his lungs off at him than sitting in a corner sighing and being civil.
Is it that wrong for me to be act normal?
Romano's words rang in his mind and he looked away guiltily even though the older man was probably miles away and could care less.
"G-Germany?" He snapped out of his thoughts and gave Veneziano a stern look.
"Your brother is a capable guy, I'm sure he's fine. But YOU have a business meeting with my boss tomorrow and you haven't even prepared anything yet!"
"Eep! I completely forgot! Veee, Germany you have to help me!" The Italian rushed into the kitchen to grab his notes and papers, leaving a face-palming German in the living room.
He began towards the kitchen too but stopped when the phone rang.
"Ve, Germany can you get that. I can't hold paper and pasta and a phone at the same time!"
"It's past midnight and you're going to eat pasta?" Germany muttered to himself before yelling a positive response and grabbing the wireless phone off the coffee table.
"Hallo?" He grunted, running a hand through his slicked back hair.
"Ah, Germany-san?"
The blonde nation frowned and glanced at the clock.
"Oh Japan, what's wrong?" It should probably be dawn where the island nation is located.
"Oh, sorry for calling so late. Did I wake you and Italy-kun?"
"N-no, we were going to go over notes for a meeting tomorrow."
"Ah, I see." Germany frowned at his ally's tone. It seemed tired yet persistently polite.
"What's the reason for calling, Japan? You need help with something?"
"Well um, I just wanted to inform Italy-kun that his brother is staying at my place."
"What? R-Romano's at your place?" Germany sputtered.
"Germany, where's Romano?" Veneziano appeared from the doorway. His hands full of papers and a bowl of pasta.
"At Japan's place." He replied and Veneziano literally dropped everything on the coffee table and ran for the phone.
"Ve, Japan? May I speak to Romano?" The Italian asked cheerfully.
"Ah, well about that, he told me he was tired and was going to 'crash here for now' and I think he's asleep."
"Ve….do you know why?"
"I'm sorry, I'm afraid not." Veneziano ve'ed silently to himself and Germany took the phone from him.
"Okay then, Japan. Thanks for informing us. Tell him to call Italy when he gets the chance and sorry for the trouble." The German felt that he had some sort of responsibility over the Italies, even if one of them is older than him by quite a lot.
"No, it's fine. I was just calling to inform you. Well I have wasted enough of your time. Good night then."
"Right, good well um, it's morning at your place by now."
"Quite, I'll talk to you some other time then. Good bye."
"Good bye…." Germany sighed and hung up, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Ve….I wonder why fratello is staying at Japan's place."
"I wonder…well, we'll worry about it later. For now, we need to get these notes finished. The last thing I need is my boss yelling at you!"
"Ah! Sorry sir!"
Japan sighed and put his phone back on the counter and turned away from it.
"I've done what you asked me to." He said calmly to the man leaning against the table, licking a Popsicle absentmindedly. It was still early in the morning, the sun barely up but Japan didn't have the heart to tell the Italian not to snack on icy treats. The japanese man had been quite surprised when he opened the door to a quiet Romano asking to stay for a few days and doing him a favor by calling Italy. Japan did as he was asked, mildly curious on how Romano had found him. He had multiple houses all across his country and Romano seemed to have found him quite easily.
"Oh, um thanks….bastard." Japan smiled softly at the almost forced curse the Italian added at the end.
"Um, if it isn't rude, I'd like to ask why you're here. Do you wish to sightsee?" The Japanese man said quietly. He doesn't know Romano all that well. The only connection they probably had was Japan being allies with Romano's brother. They have seen each other several times during meetings, also when he and Germany came to visit Italy at his house. The southern part of Italy seemed like a person people would hate but Japan felt that the cursing, always scowling man everyone saw was only a mask.
"Oh, um, yeah. It's been boring these days and I was in the mood for traveling. Your place is probably the only place I've never actually been to….." Romano bit down on the Popsicle, yanking a piece of cotton candy flavored ice off.
"Ah, I see. Is there a place that you specifically want to go to?" Japan watched the other nation freeze and glanced through the map he had gotten at the airport.
"Tokyo Tower…" Japan perked up at the soft mutter from the Italian.
"The Tokyo Tower? That is one of the best places to sightsee!" Japan gave a soft smile.
Romano nodded at the man's enthusiastic tone.
"Yeah, sounds good, bastard." He also gave a half smile before finishing the ice treat and tossing the stick into a garbage can.
/
/
"Wow, that's amazing! How the hell did you build this shit, bastard?" Romano gaped up at the tower from where he stood. Japan's Tokyo house wasn't that far away from the Tower so they had arrived within half an hour.
"Ah, I just supervised, I didn't actually build it. The structure was greatly influenced by France-san's Eiffel Tower, although the Tokyo Tower is taller by thirteen meters."
Romano frowned at the mention of France. As time passed, he began to wonder what France was trying to say to him in the alley the other day.
"Romano-san?"
"Oh um sorry. Yeah that's pretty cool. Can we go up?"
"Of course, there is an observatory deck at the top."
"Really? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go bastard!" He was about to grab Japan by the arm but remembered. Right, personal space, personal space. This guy's not a touchy contact type. Instead he ran towards the entrance and opened the entrance door.
"Welcome to the Tokyo Tower! Look at things with a hot heart with a cool touch!" A big pink thing wearing blue overalls popped out waving and handed Romano a map.
"Woah! What the hell?" And no, he did NOT let out a damn surprised, girly shriek of course.
"Ah, that's one of our mascots. He's one of the Noppon Brothers. "Japan appeared from behind Romano and nodded apologetically to the mascot.
"Ah Kiku-san! It's nice to see you again!" The mascot said and pulled the big pink head off, revealing a young man with a sweaty forehead.
"Good morning, Akawara-san." The nation nodded with a polite smile. Akawara turned to Romano.
"Is this your friend Kiku-san? A foreigner?" The mascot eyed Romano from head to toe with a raised eyebrow. The Italian knew that he probably looked really strange, wearing his tan colored uniform. But he hadn't bothered to bring a lot of clothes along with him, thinking he was going to go home straight after the meeting at wine bastard's place. His suitcase was filled with a few suits for meeting and he would fucking burn up in them in the humid weather today. He did have a sweater and jeans but it was eighty-five degrees out here and he would rather die than wear it. His uniform was the only thing thin enough and comfortable enough to wear.
"Oh, he's my cosplay friend. I was just showing him around before we go to a convention." Japan lied effortlessly. Romano raised an eyebrow. So it was known that the Japanese man was an cosplay/anime otaku?
"Ah, well that's a swell cosplay." Akawara leaned forward and was about to touch the fabric when Romano intervene.
"C-chigi! Don't touch me, bastard!" Romano hissed, backing a few steps away.
"Eh, so you can speak Japanese?" The mascot looked surprised.
"Y-yeah, problem?" Romano scowled and the man shook his head quickly, raising his arms in defense.
"Um, sorry Akawara-san he doesn't like people touching his cosplay, it took forever to make. W-we have to go. Have a nice day!" Japan stammered, pushing Romano inside and towards the elevator.
"H-hey!" Romano muttered as he was shoved into the elevator.
"I'm sorry, but Akawara-san is a talkative man and we would be there for the entire day if we didn't leave soon."
They rode the elevator in silence.
"...Romano-san."
"Yeah?"
"Is it alright if I ask you a question?"
"…..Fine but I won't guarantee that I'll answer."
"A-Alright…..why did you really want to visit my place?" The Japanese man noticed Romano tensing but kept silent, waiting for an answer.
"I-I already told you to sightsee, nothing else." The elder Italian muttered, looking away and Japan nodded awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.
The elevator stopped, the door opened. Romano stepped out, tilting his head slightly in mild curiosity. It was still pretty early and only a scattered amount of people were around. There was a small café at the side.
Romano ran towards the deck and he gave a soft gasp.
"Wow…." Even he couldn't keep the awed, bordering giddy tone out of his voice. He ran to one of the observatory binoculars, sticking a Japanese coin in the slot and peered through.
Japan just smiled; oddly proud that he had impressed the usually scowling Italian.
"Shit, you can literally see everything from here." The Italian turned the binoculars a different direction and turned it again, enjoying the feeling of being at the top of the world.
"Is that the Sky Tree?" Romano pointed to the tip of the pointed tower barely visible from where the Tokyo Tower stood.
"Hai, it is amazing isn't it?" Japan sighed, gazing out the large glass.
"Hell yeah, but not as great as the Colosseum or our monuments of course." Romano added quickly and continued gazing. However he looked up with a frown and touched the guard railing with a frown. He then turned to stare silently at the interior of the observatory deck with surprisingly serious, calculating eyes.
"This place…..was heavily renovated 'cause of some big incident…right?"
Japan let out a sound of surprise. How did he know?
Romano pointed to the binoculars and the guard railings.
"These. I've been to that wine bastard's place a few times before, unfortunately." Romano said the last word with emphasis.
"And they had pretty much the same thing in that Eiffel Tower, the stuff there are pretty old. But these look brand new." Romano gestured to the binoculars, Japan nodded silently, waiting for the Italian to continue.
"Even if the staff here take extremely good care of this shit, there's no way they'd be this shiny and free of rust. You might have renovated the place because you want it to look new again but only some rails and some things are new. As if they'd been….damaged…." Romano paused, and then leaned forward, peering down the guard rail, motioning for the Japanese nation to follow him.
"The metal used to construct this thing; some of it has been replaced and repainted. Their color is slightly off from the originals, also here and here and there." He pointed out several rails.
"Veneziano said you repaint the whole tower every five years but only two years had passed since the last paint job. There is no reason to unless, something happened." Romano pushed back and turned around to study the interior of the deck.
The inside too, you switched the tiles on the floor but you missed a spot. That first tile against the café there's a chip, the chip also extends to bottom of the café structure. And from the looks of it….Romano paused, hesitating before continuing.
"A bullet….and please tell me I got everything right on the spot or else I would've looked like some fucking idiot." Romano finished awkwardly and Japan blinked.
"R-romano-san, that was an excellent deduction!" The man nearly didn't believe it. He didn't want to be rude but being allies with Northern Italy for so many years….he had lost hope in any potential that the older Italian might posses. But now….
"N-no! That was just-just...stupid Veneziano! He's been hooked to these crazy detective dramas, and he's been watching them for a while and it sort of rubbed off on me…" Romano sputtered and glued himself back to sightseeing through the binoculars.
Japan just chuckled softly, ignoring the indignant mutters from the other nation.
"So? What the hell happened here?" The Southern part of Italy finally asked softly. Japan bit his lip and made an uncomfortable "Tsk".
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to bastard….everyone of us has some shitty business we don't want others to know about." Romano blinked, his mafia momentarily flashing through his mind in a blaze of gunfire and blood.
"Well, there were actually two incidents. They didn't occur really that far from each other, and we had two big renovation projects.
"Hmm….so what was it? Terrorists? Or what the hell do you call those things….yakuza or something like that? It didn't hurt too badly did it?" His voice almost held something that might've been concern. He could never forget the day he saw that hamburger bastard suddenly drop to the ground, writhing in pain from the aerial attack in Hawaii or the time Spain got his ass handed to him when England destroyed his supposedly invincible armada.
"N-no, not really. Just a slight cough, nothing serious. Thank you for asking." Japan nodded and continued.
"The first incident was a bombing. It trapped a little girl in a malfunctioned elevator. A boy and a police detective rescued her, ending up trapped in when the elevator fell due to another bomb. Emergency clamps saved the two from plummeting to their deaths but a mercury bomb was planted and they couldn't defuse it." Japan closed his eyes and explained, repeating word for word of what his boss had told him the day it occured.
"Why not? If they were extra careful and had outside help from bomb defusing teams, it could have been defused." Romano frowned.
"Yes, but on the LCD screen, it said that three seconds before the bomb would explode, it would give the location of a bigger bomb in another area."
"The hell? So what happened?"
"Somehow the boy figured out the location of the bomb from the first few alphabet letters displayed on the LCD screen and defused the bomb just in time. The boy and the detective were saved and the culprit was caught."
"Wait, wait, wait, the BOY figured out the location AND defused the bomb? What kind of nose-snotted brat is he?' Romano gaped, there's no way in hell a kid can do that.
"Well the bomb was placed in a small area and the police detective couldn't get to it without a risk of setting it off. So only the boy could."
"But still, that's one smart-ass kid." Romano muttered.
"And? What about this second incident you mentioned?" He asked and Japan's face grew even grimmer.
"Um well, this one is quite confidential." Romano narrowed his eyes. So it's that confidential…even other nations can't know about it.
"Fine, but at least a summary?" The Italian said casually and Japan considered for a moment.
"…..It was a serial murder case. All clues lead to the culprit being in the Touto Tower. We weren't sure what happened but it ended with a military issued Apache, shooting mercilessly at this tower. Japan frowned; his hands went unconsciously to his side. That night, he suddenly had a stomach ache and nearly collapsed in the middle of a gathering with Germany and Italy.
Romano's eyes widened. An apache….he hadn't seen those since the war days.
"Wow, so this place almost became like one of that Swiss bastard's smelly cheeses, huh?" He mumbled, glaring at the chip in the tile that could only been from a bullet.
"….Aa…"
"Well, um, sorry for bringing it up." Romano apologized, rubbing the back of his neck, his gaze shifting away.
"Ah, no, it's alright. I'm not offended in anyway, I assure you." Japan shook his head quickly.
Romano sighed and pushed away from the guard rail.
"Let's go."
"Ah, had enough?"
"Yeah, what else is there?" Romano pulled the map out again, scanning each town he saw. His eyes narrowing it down to one small area.
"Beika…." He muttered softly, glancing at the town and Japan lit up.
"Beika-Chou? That's an excellent choice!"
"Yeah, yeah, what is there to see?"
"Well, it's more of what you would call a homely town. There's no big monuments but I find it nice." Japan fondly remembered the shops and schools, little children running around.
Romano stopped and considered for a second before shrugging.
"Sure, whatever bastard."
/
/
"There's nothing here." Romano stated, allowing boredom and annoyance slip into his voice as he did. He slouched forward slightly with a scowl as the two walked down the streets of Beika. He pulled at his uniform collar, cursing the sweat clinging to his hair and clothes. Stupid sun, stupid heat.
"Well, it is a bit bland." Japan admitted sheepishly, sighing with a slight shake of his head. How strange he and Romano must look. A Japanese man in a t-shirt and jeans with a foreigner wearing a military uniform.
"Hey, what's that?" Before Japan could turn to what Romano was pointing at, the Italian had already dashed off.
"Really, he's as bad as America-san…" Japan muttered. But at least Romano didn't thank pretty women for handing him a sample "tissue" that WASN'T for his nose like the American had….
"What? What is it?" Japan questioned, catching up with the Southern half of Italy.
"This shit. It looks weird." Romano pointed at the target of his attention. The young lady at the stand laughed nervously, unsure what to say.
"Well, that's a mochi."
'Mochi?"
"Yes, it's a rice cake made of glutinous rice, sometimes filled with lotus or red bean paste or in this case, ice cream."
"Gelato? Shit, that's good; it's hot as hell today!" Let's get some." Romano gave a slight grin, slapping a Japanese bill down on the counter, giving the lady a wink.
"Two please, miss."
"A-ah hai!" She reached into the freezer and pulled out two packages, handing it to him with shaky hands.
"H-here's y-your change, sir," She dropped the coins into his waiting palm.
"Grazie, mia bella." He gave her another devilish smile and blew her a kiss. She almost squealed, even though she had absolutely no idea what the Italian had just said.
"Well, let's go." Romano turned around scowling at Japan. The latter blinked at the sudden change of attitude.
Interesting. Extremely kind and 'hot' to females and a complete 'asshole' to males. Could this be...gap moe? No... Japan observed, jumping out of his thoughts in order to avoid getting hit in the face with a package.
He looked down at the package of mochis in his hands.
"Let's go, bastard!"
Japan smiled and began walking towards the Italian man but froze in horror when he looked up briefly.
"ROMANO-SAN! DANGER!" He yelled, pointing up.
"Hmmm…?-OH FUCK!" Romano looked up, promptly screaming out a curse as a body fell with a loud crack an inch away from him, causing him to fall, landing hard on the cement.
Romano winced as a drop of blood hit his face.
A dead body.
Oh just fucking wonderful.
A dead guy. Yayz. Maybe death also hangs around Romano?
Guess who's going to show up next chapter :D
Please review. I love you all. Sorry for grammar mistakes and boring chapter.