Hello hello hello! ^^

O.O I woke up this morning to a 1,000-word story I posted lost night to already find 7 reviews! WOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH! (:

So here's the next chapter (I'm updating it sooner than I thought I would…)

Enjoy~ ^^

Lovino's home wasn't among the usual ones in Italy. It did feature a variety of different colors and had vines stretching along the western walls, however it took up several acres. All he could say to that was that his Grandfather had a very expensive taste. There home overlooked the Tiber river in which the nearby citizens would wash themselves just downstream. Not to far from the river there were almond, lemon, and olive trees grew in neat rows. Water was taken from the river to fill the fountains inside the city and around their gardens. The basins of water throughout the garden held colorful mosaics of aqua, green, and blue put there to cool people who would wander near and to attract birds to make the garden look all the more lovely. Not to long ago, Rome had developed a passionate interest for exotic plants, so he had one terrace had been turned into a paddy field and another into a palm grove. Occasionally there would be shoots of bamboo sticking from colorful pots and they would catch the wind and dance to the silent music.

It was this place in which their leader lived. The leader to the people of Italy. The citizens never questioned his orders and went about their everyday activities on tranquility and harmony. The two rules of the gods and goddesses they worshipped daily.

Lovino had finally managed to escape the hawk eye of the men ordered to watch him during his studies. They were too busy giving orders for the days coming events at sunrise that they had not noticed him slip out of the lush gardens, where a whole staff of domestic people were finishing the preparations for the festivities.

Discrete in the shadows, Lovino rushed to the west end of the building past the kitchens, libraries, and guest quarters to the ballroom and shut the doors quietly behind him. Inside there were a dozen silent maids sitting on the floor with their skirts set around them making them look like fallen flowers of a dogwood as they scrubbed the floor. He ran forward, none of them payed him any mind. He ran through the corridors, up several flights of stairs and finally into his room where he found a longhaired maid standing in the middle of the floor. Just as they planned.

"Quickly!" Lovino said as ran to his desk to grab ink which he then thrusted in the girls face. "We don't have much time! Night will fall soon! We don't have much time!"

The young girl looked at the liquid container in her pale hands with shocked eyes then threw it on the desk like it was the spawn of the devil.

"How could you ask me to do such a thing?" Elizabeth widened her eyes. "You love your hair color!"

"I could care less about my hair color! It's my family that loves it so dearly. The only thing that makes my brother and I similar in anyway." He shook his head of the thought. He took the ink in his hands and undid the lid. "Fine if you won't do it I will!"

The dark liquid made it's way out of the bottle and onto the Italian's hair making it turn from a lovely dark amber to a disgusting black. Elizabeth let out a small gasp that ended in a squeak and sighed.

"I've washed that hair of yours since you were a baby! This wasn't part of the plan! No one would be able to tell the difference underneath the hood of your disguise!" She said franticly.

"I don't care anymore." Felling satisfied with what he had done, he set down the bottle and walked to his brother's side of the room in which a mirror was set against his desk. Lovino smiled at his reflection to see that his plan had worked his amber locks were now as black as a raven's feathers. He did have several ink lines running down his forehead, however with enough scrubbing they too would vanish. Now he had nothing to attach him to his family except for the lone curl that shot from his head.

He wanted to burst from the room and run through the building showing everyone what he had done. But mostly to his Grandfather, the beginning of his rebellion.

He laughed at the thought of how they would react. But most importantly, he was the only one in the building now with hair as dark as night. No doubt he would be shunned. And what insane woman would want to marry a shunned man? No one.

"Italy can do without one precious doll from its collection, don't you agree?" He asked turning to Elizabeth. She said nothing in response and looked out the window. Lovino followed her gaze and watched as maids and servants hung lanterns on trees, watched as they arranged flowers ever so nicely, and shuttered at the thought.

No. No, I won't have to do it. I will not have to marry a stranger, I will not have to make the sacrifice to the gods, I will not have to say that damn I do.

Lovino had been sitting in the corridor with his literature instructor. When he stopped the instruction for a break he began to make a light conversation.

"You must be happy about the marriage plans! You will soon be a married man." He said with an old smile filled with wrinkles.

Lovino's face dropped instantly. His instructor was taken aback. "What? Your Grandfather never told you?"

No, he hadn't. He never wasted his time talking to Lovino. He just used him like a puppet on strings. The only thing that could be used to make alliances to foreign cities. Lovino went into a fit of rage, and right in the middle of their tranquility lessons too. Honestly! Fortunately, his instructor was a wise man and explained to the others of his outburst; soon enough everyone was quiet once more. However Lovino's temper couldn't die out so easily. Over the next few days, his instructor payed him visits, hoping to make him see reason.

"Lovino, you see many men like you have married young in this world's history for the sake of peace! You're father was only thirteen when he gave his seed to your mother! And they didn't die from it!" He quickly clamped a hand to his mouth regretting his words. They had died from it actually. They both became very sick and passed not to long after Feliciano was born. At the time, Lovino was only seven.

Lovino ignored the memory and continued. "But you know very well what that marriage will do to me! It will bind me to this dreaded building all the more! I will not have the chance to explore like I wanted to and I will have to escort this woman around the country!"

Hid tutor gave an aggravated sigh. "I'm sorry young lad…but I'm afraid you have no choice." How could he give in so easily?

"It's because of you I am allowed to think so freely! You taught me all the wonderful things I write about! How can you say such things?"

He gave a slight smile and looked at Lovino with tired eyes. "I am only a tutor, young lord. I have done nothing more but supplied you with the books you read. You must give up your childish dreams and become a man."

Lovino felt betrayed and abandoned.

"Please you must do something! Talk to someone with authority to call off the wedding!" He asked franticly.

"I wish I could, but I am only in charge of your education. I have no power what so ever."

"Then help me…" Lovino said on the verge of tears. "Help me escape."

The instructor looked at him with a devils smile. "Now that is the young man I knew you were. Always so quick to find an adventure."

He shook the memory from his head and looked back at Elizabeth. "Do you have the letter?"

She said nothing and silently pulled a folded piece of parchment out of her apron and handed it to the young Italian. He set it on his dresser, then quickly panic set in. How did he know for certain that his Grandfather or brother would not find this straight away? There was no one in the palace that he trusted besides Elizabeth. However she had decided on coming with him to help him avoid any trouble. And with that the three of them planned their escape. They had to hurry quickly while everyone was distracted with preparations.

Lovino suddenly felt nerves pinching as he thought of what might happen if he was caught…

"What do I look like?" He turned to Elizabeth.

"You look like a man I wouldn't even spit in the same direction as." She said with a nod.

"Good." He said with a smile. From now on Lovino was a man of no importance. Lovino then quickly gathered some royal garments and priceless pieces small enough to fit in the bag at his hip, along with several royal gold pieces and jewels from the frame of the mirror that belonged to his brother. Finally, he grabbed new notebooks. He planned to write about the adventures that Elizabeth and himself would have.

"Come on." Lovino said as he slipped into the secret entrance bellow the floorboards. Elizabeth followed after him and shut the entrance behind them. It wasn't until they were fully engulfed in darkness that he realized that this time it wasn't just a rehearsal.

Mwhahaha! Cliff hanger (sort of…) anywho~ Thanks again for the people who reviewed. I don't think I will be working on this story again until I have finished at least one of the other Hetalia stories.

(runs off to work on Fireworks) Review please~ ^^