A/N: Um, so I did something really different with this chapter… And it's really long. Ummm, so I really hope you don't hate it. It just really wanted to be written and…yes… *goes to hide in emo corner*
Changement
Part 11
Speaking with the personification of your country was always a very disconcerting experience for a human. Particularly when said nation had a bad habit of appearing in your office without any sort of warning.
Alcide Trovato really should have gotten used to this habit by now; he'd been dealing with Romano for almost five years now. The nation seemed to have a second sense about this sort of thing, though. Alcide would be staring out of the window of his office, thinking about something mundane, when he'd suddenly feel a hand on his wrist and a voice whisper in his ear, "Buon Giorno, Signor Trovato."
As had happened just a few seconds ago.
He'd jumped in surprise, immediately jerking back in his seat as he stared up at the male who had seated himself on the edge of his desk and was now playing with his letter opener.
"Damn it, Romano," he swore.
He occasionally wondered why in the world he'd been given this job. He'd just been a normal fellow when he'd been approached with what had seemed at the time like a wonderful proposition. He'd always had a hard time holding down a job; he'd been working at a flower shop at the time, attempting to make enough money to support himself, his wife, and their daughter on the way… And then his brother had told him of this amazing job that didn't require any special skills…Just a lot of patience.
He hadn't been overly thrilled about the idea of working with the mafia, but he'd been told that he wouldn't have to kill anybody or even get directly involved in anything really illegal. And he'd been desperate at the time, so…
Sometimes, he really wished he'd turned that offer down…
"I need you to do something for me," Romano remarked, flashing the man a bored look that plainly read that he didn't really want to be dealing with him right now.
What a surprise.
Alcide could remember the day that he'd received this job as clearly as he could remember anything else in his life. Clearer than most. Every moment was engraved deeply into his memory, no matter how much he wished that he could forget all about this mess.
He'd been led into the room by his brother and a few other members that he'd forgotten the names of; he figured it was probably safer that way.
And had immediately been greeted by a scowling, well-dressed brunette with the oddest hair curl he'd ever seen sticking out from the right side of his head. Seriously, the thing was defying all laws of gravity…
He looked relatively young, only in his twenties or so, although it was rather hard to tell since he was scowling so furiously at everybody in sight.
Which, Alcide had realized once his eyes moved from the odd person seated in the exact center of the room, included the boss. The capofamiglia.
He was shocked. What was he—not even a soldier yet—doing meeting the boss of their family?
"Ah, Signor Trovato," the man that Alcide recognized as the underboss, Nicolo Ricci greeted him. "I would like you to meet Don Lovino Vargas."
"It's Romano to you bastards," the irritated man immediately interrupted, flashing each of them a glare that should have caused everyone in the vicinity to spontaneously combust. Alcide found himself taking a quick step backwards in an attempt to distance himself from the man.
This turned out to be a futile attempt, as Nicolo just flashed the male an exasperated look before motioning toward him while looking at Alcide. "Also known as Italia Meridionale."
And that was how he'd found out about the nations. And also simultaneously found out that his new job was to be the go-between the human personification of half of their nation and the capofamiglia.
And if the nation wanted anything done that didn't require the attention of the boss, then he was to do it. No matter what…
"What do you want, Romano?" he sighed, as he rested his elbow on the desk and stared up at the brunette who was glaring down at him from his perch on top of the papers that he was supposed to be signing right now.
"I want you to call Germania for me and pretend to be his boss. You're good at disguising your voice and doing accents, after all."
Alcide was about to ask how he knew that, then realized that that would be a rather stupid question. Romano probably knew more about him than he knew about himself. "And what am I supposed to say to Germania?"
"Tell him that the presence of Prussia is absolutely necessary at the next nation meeting. And make sure that he doesn't get the chance to say no. Here…" He shoved a sheet of paper in his face. "Here's how you say it in German. Don't fuck this up."
Alcide had been dealing with Romano for long enough to know that asking Romano for an explanation of his actions would just end up with him getting screamed at. So he just repeated the words on the page out loud, now thankful for those few months studying in Germany so he at least knew how they were supposed to sound… He doubted that Romano would be patient enough to teach him the correct pronunciation.
He did make him repeat it until he thought it sounded perfect and then relaxed as Alcide picked up the phone and dialed the number, after glancing at the pad of paper that held the home phone numbers of practically every nation in the world, organized by how often Romano actually called them. Germany was pretty close to the top, actually. Interesting, since the other nation hated him so much.
Actually, not so surprising. He wouldn't put it past Romano to be the type of person to prank call people that he didn't like.
He switched the phone to speaker so Romano could hear, lowering his voice to a pitch that he knew sounded at least similar to that of Germany's current boss. It was a good thing that he watched basically everything that he could find about other country's political affairs, so he knew what he sounded like. Not that he really wanted to watch all of those political reports, but it was generally a good idea to keep up to date on those matters when you were dealing with the nations.
If only to know who was pissed off at whom.
"Hallo?"
"Deutschland, I need you to bring Preußen to the next meeting. It's incredibly urgent."
Germany sounded understandably confused. "Was? You want Osten at the meeting? Why? You know what happened last time he came to a meeting. I think that parts of the ceiling in that room are still pink."
"It's incredibly urgent." He repeated, wishing that Romano had given him more lines to say. The nation was motioning for him to hang up, which he did after another "It's urgent" and then a "Goodbye" that he hoped actually meant goodbye and wasn't some random word that he'd drudged up from his distant memory.
Romano nodded in satisfaction once he'd finished, although he remarked, "Your accent was off, bastardo, but I doubt that he'd notice."
That was about as close to a 'good job' as you'd ever receive from Romano.
"So, not that it matters, but is there a specific reason that you want Prussia at your meeting?"
"'Cause he needs to be there to see something. It's not like it was my idea or anything. It was that idiot Spagna's fau…"
"Lovi~!" And suddenly the figure that had been perching on his desk was now being attacked by a dark-haired figure that had burst into the room without any warning.
Alcide started to move from his seat in automatic response, and then realized that the newcomer wasn't actually trying to hurt the other male but was instead…um…hugging him…or something like that…
Was he suicidal or something?
"Get off of me, you bastard!!" Romano screeched in fury. "I told you to stay in the car while I did this!!"
"But I was lonely, Lovi~! And I wanted to see what you were doing." He now suddenly seemed to notice the other occupant of the room and immediately released Romano rather suddenly, almost causing him to fall off the desk, and skipped over to the other man. "Hola, Señor! You must be Señor Travato! Soy España!"
"Idiot! You don't just say that to any human who comes along!" Romano exclaimed, smacking him upside the head.
Alcide blinked in surprise. Well…he'd never actually met any of the other nations. Although he'd heard a lot about them from Romano when he was in the mood to complain, which was often. He'd definitely heard about Spain before…
"You're Spagna?" he questioned. Why had he gotten the cranky nation? He'd much rather have to deal with someone like this.
"Sí!" And suddenly he was shocked when the nation in question attacked him with a hug that almost crushed the air out of his lungs. "It's so nice to meet you! Lovi told me all about you! He said you were part of the evil muffins! But you don't seem evil at all!"
"Spagna!!" And the overly-exuberant nation was suddenly dragged away before Alcide had any time to react to the random display of affection.
"Ah, Lovi~ I didn't get to ask him anything!" He was actually being forcibly dragged by the other man out of the room, Romano flashing a look back at him that quite plainly read 'tell anyone about this and you're dead'.
Alcide didn't need to be told twice.
A/N: I'm sooooo sorry for all of the random exposition, but…I really really wanted to write this. And I love Romano dealing with the mafia... *munches on chocolate Easter eggs in her emo corner* Is it bad that I really like Alcide? Even if he is an OC and part of the mafia. I think that he was given the job to deal with Romano just because he's not really evil enough to make a good mafia member.
And I don't really feel like explaining all where I came up with this idea of having an intercessor between the mafia and Lovi. Basically, Lovi and the mafia just have to live with each other even though they'd much rather not… So in order to keep interaction down between them, the mafia came up with the idea of having a go-between who can deal with Lovi unless it's about something really important.
And just to make it clear about the languages…The whole conversation between Romano and Alcide was taking place in Italian, the one between Alcide and Germany was in German, and then Spain comes in and is talking in Italian with some random Spanish thrown in just because he's excited while Romano and Alcide are both speaking Italian back at him. I figure that since the countries have been around for centuries and centuries, they'd be pretty multilingual.
And the next chapter should be the meeting. (Should, no promises though, since it isn't written yet)
Random Vocab: (There's a lot, so it's quite likely that I got something wrong)
Buon Giorno - Good Day (I)
Signor - Mister (I)
Capofamiglia - Mafia Boss, head of the family (I)
Don - honorific of respect, used for high-ranking members of the mafia (I)
Italia Meridionale - South Italy (I)
Germania - Germany (I)
Hallo - Hello (G)
Deutschland - Germany (G)
Preußen - Prussia (G)
Was - What? (G)
Osten - East (G)
Spagna - Spain (I) -- Okay, so just to go with this one, I've noticed that like...everybody is suddenly using this now and nobody did before I did... Does that mean I created fanon? That would be so epic if I did xD
Soy España - I'm Spain (S)
