Honey eyes stared back at him.

"Why do you look so sad, fratello?"

Romano didn't want to answer.

"Is it because I haven't visited you in so long?"

Don't tell him the truth.

"Ve~! Don't worry, fratello! I'll make sure to visit you more! I'll even bring you your favorite pasta!"

Don't make your brother worry.

"...Fratello?"

Don't make him cry.

"Fratello, what's wrong? Why won't you say anything?"

Don't... just don't...

"I hate you, Feliciano."

There was guilt as he looked into his brother's scared eyes. Feliciano looked ready to cry, the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. Lovino took a few steps closer and watched as Feliciano flinched, confusion swimming in his eyes.

"I hate you, because everyone loves you." Feliciano's eyes widened even further. "We are both Italy, but I've never once heard anyone call me that. It's always been you that was given that honor. You've always been the best out of us two. You were Nonno's favorite grandchild, and the only one he ever loved and paid attention to. Everyone loves you Feliciano, not me, and that is what's killing me inside."

"B-but... But I love you! Fratello, I-" Lovino interrupted Feliciano with a harsh glare, silencing his brother.

"Do you? You've never noticed how this has all affected me, have you fratello?" Lovino spat, the word 'fratello' sounding dirty with disgust. " You never had to, because I don't matter that much to you anymore. We were never close to begin with, were we fratello? You can blame that on Nonno because after all, you were the last one to see him, right fratello?" Each statement was visibly stabbing Feliciano and he fell to his knees, eyes never leaving Lovino's. The tear tracks never stopped and Lovino caught a few stray ones as he knelt in front of him. Feliciano moved to say something, but Lovino shook his head.

"You know... Lately I've been thinking that I shouldn't be alive," Feliciano looked stricken and Lovino smiled down at him with sad eyes. So very rare was it that Lovino ever smiled in front of Feliciano. "Why so scared Feli? It won't be you that will be hurting. You can be the unified Italy, something that you've always been told you were. I was never meant to be here, and ever since Nonno left us, I've been nothing but a burden to everyone."

Standing up, Lovino looked down at his brother with the tears threatening to choke him. "I'm sick Feli, and you know that now. I am sick and tired of being looked over for you. I am tired of losing everything to you," Lovino could see himself slowly disappearing. His fingertips were disintegrating into sand and Feliciano cried out in horror.

"I'm just fucking tired of everything." Lovino whispered, closing his eyes as Feliciano crashed into him, begging him to not leave him.

"Lovino! Lovino! P-Please fratello! Don't leave me! Ti amo! TI AMO! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"ROMANO!" A new voice joined Feliciano, both calling out to him and Romano blearily opened his eyes to see who else it was that was calling him.

Through the haziness, Romano could see two honey eyes looking back at him.

"Romano..."

When Romano woke up it was to a sobbing Italian sprawled across his chest, a broken fever, and several countries surrounding him. Germany stood awkwardly off to the side as his normally bubbly lover cried a storm while his own brother was sitting down backwards in a spare chair with Spain standing right next to him.

"Fratello! You're alive!" Feliciano cried, eyes glazed over with fear and relief. "I t-thought I lost you forever!"

"Feliciano... What the hell is going on?" Romano pushed his brother off of him and sat up on the bed, wincing as his head screamed out in pain. He clutched his head and groaned, causing his brother to worry even more as a new wave of tears appeared.

"Ve-! Fratello are you okay? Germany, please tell me he'll be okay!" Feliciano tugged at the German nation's hand and looked up at him with scared eyes. Germany frowned and looked over at Romano before reaching over and placing a warm hand on his forehead. Romano gave a sigh, too tired to yell at the German for touching him, and flopped back into his pillows making Feliciano scream, thinking that Germany had somehow hurt his brother.

"VE-! GERMANY YOU KILLED HIM!" Feliciano sobbed, hitting the nation with his weak fists. Germany panicked and tried to reassure the crying Italian that he did no such thing. Prussia, who was silent up until then, had snickered at them but Spain paid no attention as he pulled a chair next to Romano and placed a gentle hand on top of his head. Romano weakly scowled, but it just came out looking like a grimace.

"What happened, tomato-bastard?" He asked him, closing his eyes as Spain lightly ruffled his hair. It comforted his splitting headache, somewhat.

"I don't know all the details," Spain said, smiling at the rare chance that Romano was letting him have any physical contact with him. "But this morning I got a frantic call from Germany, telling me that little Feli had passed out and wasn't responding to anything. When I arrived an hour later Prussia was already there and had said that it might have been a twin thing, which naturally had me worried so I had Germany bring Feli here in hopes that you could tell us what was wrong. However, when we had gotten here the same thing had happened to you and you can imagine the amount of panic Germany and I went through!" Spain laughed, gaining the attention of Prussia and Germany, who was still trying to comfort Feliciano as he was crying for no apparent reason now. Prussia walked over to Spain and sat on the edge the bed and kicked Spain in the shin. As the Spanish man fell off the chair in pain, Prussia continued the story where it left off.

"Anyway, 'Toni over here wanted to find someone to blame so as he was half-way through making a phone call to England, Feli over here," Prussia jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Feliciano. "Decided to wake up and when he did he never left your side. Saying something about you disappearing?" Prussia's eyes narrowed but Romano didn't pay any attention to that. Instead his eyes widened in shock and stared back at Feliciano's guilty face.

"What are you talking about potato-bastard number 2?" Romano glared at Prussia, who glared right back.

"You heard me." Prussia stood up and looked down on Romano with his arms crossed. "When Feli woke up he started crying about seeing you disappearing in front of him and that it was all his fault and he couldn't do anything about it. Now I don't know about you but that doesn't sound like any normal nightmare, at least not coming from him." By now everyone was waiting to see what would happen.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, jackass. Feliciano probably had something bad to eat before he fell asl-"

"No I didn't!" Everyone looked at Feliciano in shock as the Italian looked right at Romano with tears in his eyes. "I didn't dream about it! I know what you said to me and I know it wasn't a dream because I would never, ever say those horrible things about you-"

"You don't know what you're talking about so shut up." Romano clenched the sheets around him and his breathing became shallow. His headache grew worse and there was an incredible ringing in his ears. If Feliciano didn't stop talking then Romano would do something that he would regret.

"No! I won't! You need to listen to me Romano! I know we haven't been close before but I promise to make it up to you! I'll spend my free time with you! I'll cook us pasta! I'll-"

"Feliciano, shut the fuck up." His vision was becoming blurry and Romano will be damned if he lets himself be seen crying in front of everyone else.

"Not before you realize that I'll be here for you, Romano! We all care about you. Why can't you see that-!"

"Shut up, Shut up, SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, GOD DAMNNIT!" Romano screamed, his voice cracking with restrained sobs. Feliciano clamped up and drew himself back from his older brother's fury. Spain and Germany looked alarmed at the Italian's anger and Prussia's eyes widened in shock. "WHY CAN'T YOU TAKE THE FUCKING HINT AND LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"

"F-Fratello-"

"WHY IN FUCK'S SAKE WOULD I WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU? IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT I'M COMPARED TO YOU IN PUBLIC; WHY SHOULD I TORTURE MYSELF EVEN FURTHER IF I HAVE TO SEE WITH MY OWN EYES HOW PERFECT YOU ARE?"

"T-That's n-not...n-not..."

"Save it," Romano's voice was hoarse and cracking. Turning away from everyone's stunned faces, he tried to salvage whatever dignity he had left. "I don't want to hear it. All of you, leave my fucking house. Now."

"No." Had Spain had anything right to say, it wouldn't have been this. Romano swerved his head to stare at Spain in disbelief, as the rest of the occupants in the room. Spain clenched and unclenched his fists and heaved a sigh.

"How many times have I told you to stop comparing yourself to your brother?" Romano glared right on back as Spain gripped his own hair in frustration. "Romano, you know that your brother is not any better than you. I wouldn't want you any different than you are now-"

"Liar," Romano's eyes had a weird glaze to them and Spain was afraid that he had finally lost it. Gently, so that he wouldn't blow up again, Spain tried to grab Romano's hand but Romano slapped his hand away and glared even harder at him.

"I'm not lying to you, mi toma-"

Romano looked up at Spain with his most harshest glare and Spain flinched. Romano sounded like he was going to cry; Hurt and bitterness lacing his words.

"Don't you dare lie to me! When you first got me from Austria you had tried your hardest to trade me with Feliciano!"

Spain stood there with a stricken look on his face. Germany and Feliciano looked at Spain in shock while Prussia just looked away with a frown on his face. Spain glanced away from Romano before looking back at him with confusion in his eyes. "H-How did you-?"

"It was easy to figure out," Romano hated how his voice trembled. The tears were threatening to burst and he just wanted everyone to leave and not see him like this. "When you had came back... I was so relieved. I had thought that you had decided to keep me...but seeing the disappointed look in your eyes proved me wrong once again. It's always been Feliciano that you wanted, not me. So fuck you, Spain. Fuck you and all those years you've lied to me."

For once, Spain had nothing to say. He didn't know what to say, and it was that hesitation, that refusal to deny what was being said, that had Romano double over on the bed and cry. It didn't matter anymore that he was in front of people he didn't normally show such weakness to. It didn't matter that crying would only make his headache hurt worse. It didn't even matter that he was basically crying over something that happened centuries ago. All that mattered to Romano was the fact that the one person he had trusted since he was little, had never really wanted him in the first place. It hurt worse knowing that even now, Spain wasn't denying it.

"R-Romano..." His brother reached over and brushed his fingertips against his shoulder. Sobs racked his brother's body further and Feliciano stood where he was, shaking in tears too. He's never seen his fratello cry this hard before, and it made his heart break. Strong arms gently guided him away and he looked up to see the conflicting blue eyes of Germany. The blonde looked shaken up, for he too has never seen Romano break down like this.

"Let's leave him alone Ita... Feliciano," Germany corrected himself and Feliciano's heart thudded in warmth. He was being nice for fratello.

"I don't want to leave him alone, Ludwig," Feliciano worriedly said and Germany looked over his shoulder back at Prussia, who was dragging Antonio away from the heart-broken Italian on the bed. Lovino looked like he wanted everyone to die and leave him be.

"...I think that's exactly what he wants," Ludwig gently took Feliciano from the room and closed the door just as Prussia and Antonio were leaving. All four stood out in the dark hallway, neither knowing exactly what to say. It was Prussia who broke the silence, glancing around nervously from the door and back to them.

"I... I need to call someone. Toni, you're coming with me since I don't want you to do something stupid again. West?" Prussia grabbed Spain's lifeless arm and looked at Germany with a clear message in his eyes. Germany nodded and followed Prussia away from the door and into the downstairs kitchen. Feliciano clung to his arm like a lifeline.

Romano heard their footsteps walk away and shuddered out a soft breath of relief when everything became still again. He was back to being alone, and that was fine with him.

The tears on his face begged to differ.