Warnings: Mild Violence

-2.12-

"Feli doesn't need some perverted bastard following him around," Lovino answers for me, "He's got me!"

Right at that moment, Arthur decides to hop in, a bunny once more, and seat himself upon cousin Francis's lap. "Yes, he may have you now, but what happens when you're gone? You can't protect Feli forever." He scratches the rabbit spirit behind a big, floppy ear, causing the coniglio to close his eyes contentedly.

"Oh yeah? Watch me," Fratello snarls, "Feli doesn't need a spirit animal."

Francis turns to me, "Feli, you have not been given a say thus far. What do you think?"

"I- I, well-"

"There, see? He agrees that getting his own paranormal asshole is stupid. He already has Antonio to deal with!"

"Cousin, s'il vous plaît. Stop putting words in his mouth!"

"Cousin Francis, fratello, please stop fighting-"

"Besides, Feli's innocent enough; I'm sure he can get someone to swear they'll protect him!"

"Yeah, innocent enough for someone to take advantage of him-"

"Hey! Stop it!" I whine, "I want to get a spirit animal as much as anyone, really, but I don't want some random person off the street I know nothing about! I'm doing this at my own pace, okay?"

Lovino and Francis stare at me, their expressions unreadable. Then, Francis sighs, "Feli, listen, as much as I wish to acknowledge your opinion in all of this, you do realize how important it is to have a spirit pledge their loyalty to you, oui?"

Fratello looks down at Toni, petting the zoned-out fox.

My cousin continues, "Although the Vargas family hasn't had any political power since the collapse of Italy's monarchy, we're still treated like royalty. Hell, we're one of the most wealthy and influential families in Europe- no, the world! And as such, we have a very prestigious reputation to uphold. As descendants of King Romulus, the first human to have a spirit animal swear their allegiance to them, a monumental part of that reputation is for every one of us to be shadowed by a spirit. If not starting as a child, the bond should at least exist by the end of secondary school! So, do you see where I'm coming from here?"

I nod silently, "Si."

"Si," Fratello affirms.

Francis adjusts himself and takes a sip of his drink, "So, what were you saying about school?"

After lunch, I dash to my room for the next three months, in which some seemingly invisible staff had unpacked all of my bags. I snatch up my sketchbook, pencil, and a set of watercolor paints, along with a bottle of water and a heavy pouch of brushes. All of the above gets shoved into a messenger bag, and slung over my shoulder as I rush out the door.

"Ciao!" I call, the front door slamming shut behind me.

I excitedly prance along the dirt road that winds throughout the area, looking for the opportune spot to sit and paint. I run for a good while, until I decide to pause for a break. When I gaze in front of me, a mad grin stretches across my face. Before my eyes is a large, beautiful forest of sky-scraping trees, vibrant, healthy, summer leaves fluffing out from dark brown branches. Looking both ways, I cross the dirt pathway, entering the vivacious museum of greenery.

As I walk among the wildlife, I can't help but to compare it to the city. Fratello and I have lived and grown up just outside Rome for as long as we can remember, and the forest is nearly identical in its own, nature-filled way. The trees are the buildings; ancient oaks populate most of the area but every once in awhile, a younger tree, or even a sapling pops up from the earthy streets. A mixture of birds, squirrels, and chipmunks flit about like the abundance of tourists, especially during the warmer months, in which cameras, sunglasses, and small animals alike come out of hibernation.

I wander about like a kid in a candy store, my eyes taking in everything with a sense of amazement. Coming across a large, sturdy tree, I seat myself at its base and pull out my paints. For the next few hours, I'm in heaven! I sketch and paint the surroundings to my heart's content, then take a siesta as I wait for the paint to dry. After all, I don't want my messenger bag to get all wet and paint-splattered from the watercolors; that would be terrible! I love painting; it's only with brush in hand that I truly feel home. Colors seem to fly off the canvas or paper, blending and singing together in perfect harmony, all too similar to an expertly directed choir. It's the most extravagant of orchestras, and I compose their sweet melodies.

Finished painting for the moment, I stand and begin to explore. I take in a deep breath, completely at ease. The wind softly ruffles my hair, causing the curl sticking off the side of my head to bounce and sway; the air smells distinctly of sap and leaves; the animals are completely silent…

Wait, the animals are completely silent? Where did all the cute little creatures go?

I open my eyes and my heart nearly stops. Just a few small meters away is an entirely pitch black wolf, its eyes glowing a bright, soulless red. I feel a tremble slither down my spine as a cold sweat forms on my brow. The wolf growls. I stare. All of a sudden, it lunges, and I scream. My eyes shut of their own accord, arms are lifted protectively over my face, I stumble backwards as I'm certain its sharp fangs make contact with my skin, and-

It never happens. I open my eyes and blink in fear and confusion. Instead of the- the thing tearing my throat out, I shake at the display set before me. Right when it had jumped in my direction, a gray wolf had tackled it off-course and is now in a violent match with it. Breathing heavily, I scoot towards the trees, hiding behind one. I poke the top of my head out from my living shield and watch with bated breath as the two duke it out. As one swings a clawed paw at its opponent's face, I duck away once more with a squeak. The sounds of ferocious growling, snapping teeth, and the almost audible tear of flesh echo off the bark of the silent trees for all too long, until it all goes quiet.

Knees held to my chest, face pressed into my legs, I shake. A cool, wet object prods at my shoulder, and I release yet another noise resembling that of a mouse's squeak. Seconds later, I hear the soft padding of paws on crumbling earth. There is some shuffling, then something comes back to my direction, their feet making much louder, heavier crunches on the ground. I feel the warm sunlight that once comforted me disappear into frigid shadow, and I freeze in place.

"Are you alright?" I hesitantly lift my head in curiosity at the clearly German accent.

Standing over me is an unfamiliar man about my age. The first thing I notice about him is his height; wow, he's really tall and scary! Plus, he has these intense, piercing, ice blue eyes that kind of freak me out. I feel like they're staring into my soul. His light blond hair is neatly slicked back, exposing sharply tipped ears. My amber eyes travel to the rest of his body. He's wearing a gray tank top and black shorts that do absolutely nothing to cover up his attractively sized muscles. This would definitely make him less intimidating under different circumstances…

"Hallo?" He crouches to my level, waving a hand in front of my face, "Anyone in there?"

I quickly jump away, "PLEASEDON'TKILLMEI'MTOOYOUNGTODIEBESIDESIHAVEN'TEVENFINISHEDSCHOOLINGYETALLIWANTEDTODOWASPAINTPLUSFRATELLOWILLBEREALLYREALLYANGRYANDIFHE'SANGRYHISBLOODPRESSUREWILLGOUPANDITGOESUPENOUGHALREADYDEALINGWITHTONISOIDON'TWANTHIMTOGETAHEARTATTACKORSOMETHINGBESIDESIHAVEN'TEVENHADSEXYETI'MANITALIANVIRGINWHYDOYOUTHINKWEMAKEVIRGINOLIVEOILALLIWANTTODOISLIVEAPEACEFULLIFEWITHFRATELLOANDEATPASTAANDPAINTALLDAYPLEASEJUSTSPAREMEIDON'TWANTTODIEEEEEEEEE!" Burning tears flow down my face like a river as I beg for my life.

"Wait, what? Why would I want to kill you?" The other looks at me in bafflement.

"Wait, you mean you're not some big, mean, scary monster that wants to hurt me?" I calm down and dry my cheeks with the sleeve of my shirt.

"No, why would I do that? You're just an innocent bystander," He looks over his shoulder at a significant patch of singed leaves and dirt, a black shape on the ground that suspiciously resembles the outline of a wolf laid on its side, "That," He gestures to the burned-in design, "was my target. I was hoping to keep it alive for interrogation, but apparently they all have some sort of self-destruct mode in place, causing an explosion if they become weak enough."

My eyes widen, "You saved my life."

He seems to tense, "Well, I wouldn't say that. I- I needed to take that thing out anyways, so-"

"Ve~ you saved my life!" I tackle him to the ground in a hug, pretending not to notice the way he stammers over his words.

"What- what are you-?! What is this nonsense?! Why are you hugging me?!"

"I'm just so happy! I can't believe it; I can't believe you actually saved me! I really thought I was going to die from that wolf-thing, but then you showed up and everything was happy! Well, except for that moment where I thought you were going to kill me, but that was just a mess-up! You saved my life and that's all that matters, because now I'm safe and sound and-"

"Ow!"

I pause and regard where my hand has landed. Right on the back of his shoulder is a large, bloody, incredibly painful-looking wound. "Oh no, you're hurt!"

He gently pries me off of him, or at least as gentle as 'prying' can be, and takes a good look at the gash himself, "Eh, it's not that bad."

"NOT THAT BAD?!" I shout, panicked, "How is this not that bad?! You have a wound the size of a sandwich platter!"

"Ja, but I've had worse. Definitely going to scar though…" He frowns at the bloody mess.

Quickly, I stand, dragging the other up with me, "Hey, what are you doing? Where are you taking me?" His protests fall on deaf ears.

A firm look of resolution glued to my face, I respond, "I'm taking you back to my cousin's mansion. You saved my life, so now I'm going to help you!"

"What- you can't just-"

"Oh yes I can!" I tug him along, "No if's and's or but's!"

For the rest of the walk home, I pull him impatiently, turning down all qualms with me assisting him. I suppose, if anyone sees us, we must be quite a strange pair, a short and kind of dirty Vargas with a spark of determination in his eyes for once, towing behind him a bulky German with a dreadful injury on his back. As we approach the villa, the wolf begins to dig his heels into the ground.

"Oh mein Gott, you have got to be kidding me," He mutters, "Oh no, no, no, no, no, you are not spending anything extra on me."

I yank him harder, stubborn as the gravity-defying curl attached to my head, "I'm not spending extra! It's no trouble, really! Besides, you saved my life. Why wouldn't I want to repay you?!"

Without taking any of his sometimes-colorful opinions into account, I swing open the doors of the building, heading off in the direction of the at-home infirmary. I dash upstairs, hearing my companion stumble after me, down the purple, wine-colored halls of the second floor, all the way to the fourth door on the left. Inside is a lavish bed of creamy blankets, a window over-looking the neighbor's vineyards, and a mahogany bedside desk filled with medical supplies. Entering the room, I shove the other onto the bed, the speedily close and lock the door behind me. Saved my life or not, fratello is going to be exploding when he finds out I brought a strange man I found in the woods home with me!

"You really don't need to do this-"

"Yes, actually, I do!" I grin, opening the desk drawer. I take out everything I think I'm going to need. Within a few minutes, I have gauze, bandages, a wet towel, soap, disinfectant, and a bowl of warm water laid out before me, and am in the process of pushing the wolf face-first into the mattress as he shouts against it. "Sorry about this, but I really need to clean and wrap your wound!"

I then begin to clean the jagged tear, cringing at the other's flinches and yelps as I apply the disinfectant. However, within the hour, pristine, white medical linens have been neatly wound about the wolf's injured shoulder and tied with a pretty-looking bow! He sits up from the uncomfortable position I'd forced him into, eyes scanning over his now-covered wound.

He freezes and his cheeks take on a faint tint of red, "I didn't need your help…"

I grin, "Of course you did! And even if you didn't, I still would've helped you, because you saved my life! Now, are you hungry? I bet you're hungry!"

I grab ahold of his hand and begin to prance towards the door, blabbering on about the yummy food cousin Francis's chefs can make. "My cousin Francis hired professional chefs, because he really loves good food and it would be terrible if he hired anyone but the best, don't you think? And also, there's this one guy who makes the best pasta ever, and-"

I open the door after fumbling with the lock for a moment, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Standing just on the other side, his entire face a brilliant shade of tomato red, is Lovino.

"Ve~ Fratello!" I brighten at his presence.

"HONESTLY, FIRST YOU SHOW UP SLAMMING THE DOOR SHUT, THEN YOU COMPLETELY 'FORGET' TO SAY CIAO TO YOUR OWN FUCKING TWIN, THEN YOU-" He pauses, suddenly noticing the third person, "WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?!"

"Oh, si!" I jump, remembering to introduce fratello to my new friend, "This is my twin brother, Lovino," I gesture to fratello, looking at my guest, "And fratello, this is-" I cut myself off.

Wait, I just realized I don't know his name!

"Si? This is?" Lovino keeps a steady gaze, meeting my amber eyes with miniature bon fires inside his ones of hazel.

"Um… fratello, I may or may not have brought a complete stranger home."

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

And so, after about ten full minutes of Lovino cussing me out in Italian, Toni, this time fully-dressed, comes upstairs to see what all the commotion is about. He takes one look at the scene, then wordlessly picks fratello up, slings him over his shoulder, and starts walking in the direction of the stairs.

"Hey, you coming or what?" He calls behind him, sounding surprisingly tired. I thought Arthur was the exasperated one! Still pouting from fratello yelling at me so much, my eyes slightly damp, I nod my head and follow, the German one of the group trailing after me.

A/N:

Hey, guys! In case you haven't noticed, Feliciano's not so bright... and also, with the second part comes a change in both perspective and tense! Instead of third person-past, the entirety of part 2 shall be written in first person-present! Crazy, right? The last sub-part had a seriously long author's note, so a bunch of information I originally intended to put there is being put here. First order of business: GerIta. There is one hundred percent going to be GerIta; it's just going to take awhile. And by a while, I mean two months in the fanfic. (Two months for the characters, but probably longer in the real world.) I intend for part 2 to span over the course of the first month that the Vargas twins are vacationing in France, while part 3 is going to take place during the second month. I'm trying to make the relationships in this fanfic develop realistically, so therefore I'm going to go with 'slow and steady' here. Again, it's going to take a good while for the GerIta to become canon in this AU.

Secondly, Rome x Germania. Trust me when I say I haven't abandoned this ship! Hell, it's going to come back in the intermission and part 3! In fact, I've been writing a short one-shot type of thing about Nekotalia Rome x Germania that I plan on posting soon. However, my main qualm with this ship is that I feel like it needs a proper ship name. It can't be called RoGer, because if you google that, it'll think you mean the name Roger. It also can't be called RoMania, because then google will think you mean the country. What the hell are we supposed to call this ship?! This is something I'm seriously confused about, so I would love it if I could get some help with this! Thank you for taking the time to read this shipping PSA!

And, last but not least, the Vargases. In this AU, it has been several centuries, as of the present, since the Vargas family last held political power. This is pointed out near the beginning of this sub-part. However, even though they're not royalty anymore, they're still treated as such. They're sort of like the Kardashians, but with less sex tapes and more stupidity! Basically, they're famous purely because why not? This isn't really a big thing at the moment, but I'm definitely going to bring up their fame later on; trust me on that. I also plan on explaining how Antonio and Lovino met, as well as making Spamano canon in this AU at some point. Just a heads up warning, it's definitely going to get steamy in later parts and sub-parts.

How's it going in writing land?
The second half of part 2: Just started, it's going to take me awhile.

The intermission: At least half-way done, I've been pretty good about working on it!

Responses to review(s):

Seele Esser Deutsch: Sounds intense. O-o Also, yes, and the name I gave Germania is 'Aldrich.' (Lol, whatshisface. X3) Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad I made your eyes go all sparkly!

I'm sighing right now. Remember a few lines back where I said I've practically just started the second half of part 2? Yeah, I seriously need to work on that.

Anyways, do let me know if anyone would like me to post that Nekotalia Rome x Germania I've been dabbling with! I mean, I'm definitely posting it regardless of whether or not you want me to. I just think it'd be nice if people thought flirtatious cats being dorks was a good concept.

See you tomorrow! (Then, or whenever I decide to post the Nekotalia thing today... )