Italy sat next to Germany. Germany was sitting, doing paperwork, and Italy was sitting, sitting next to Germany.

Both of them were doing things that were extremely important, in their own minds. Italy didn't think that Germany should have to work so much and Germany didn't think that his own presence was important— not when he wasn't even talking to Italy.

After a few hours of Italy humming and swinging his legs back and forth and sleeping, Germany finally pushed his chair back with a loud screech, sighing. He had a headache, but there was still a lot more paperwork to be done. He couldn't rest.

"Germany! Germany!" Italy said, waving at him as if Germany hadn't been aware of his presence.

Germany pushed past him. He hadn't realized how hungry he was until now.

"Germany?" Italy asked. "You haven't forgotten about me, have you? You said you wouldn't forget."

"No, Italy, of course I haven't forgotten. I'm sorry. I'm just a little... I just have a bit of a headache."

"Hm." Italy said. "You should take some medicine."

"That's a great idea," Germany said, rumbling around the medicine cabinet.

Italy began to make pasta using Germany's ingredients. Germany didn't protest. He was tired. At least his headache was starting to go away.

Italy placed a bowl of pasta in front of him before sitting down across from Germany. He watched for a second, before saying, "You can smile."

"What?"

"You can smile. It's not impossible, right? I've seen you do it."

"Yeah." Germany did smile. It was weird, that such a phrase could cause someone to smile immediately. It felt weird, but it felt right. It felt like an appropriate response.

They talked for awhile, talked through the warmth of the pasta and well into its new career of coldness. It had been awhile since Germany had smiled, he realized. It was nice.

This was rather short, but oh well. Just an idea I had based off of something one of my teachers used to tell me— "You can smile now, ——." Anyway, I don't write much about nations other than America and England, so please review and tell me what you liked, if I wrote the characters well, if I didn't (for what it's worth— I know there's not much), etc. It would be a great help!