Pairings mentioned/brought up: GerIta and SpaMano

Warnings: None. =3

-2.16-

The next morning, after a rather 'eventful' dinner and a good night's sleep, I sit at the gorgeously polished table of the villa's formal dinning room. As I happily chow down on my omelet, Arthur goes over the day's schedule.

"Today's actually quite tame for the most part. The majority of it is open, so I suppose you all can just find something non-destructive to entertain yourselves with," The rabbit spirit flips through clean, white papers attached to his clip board, "Well, that is until around three this afternoon. Mr. Edelstein called late last night-"

"Uncle Roddy!" I cheer as another person enters the room, "Ve~ Ciao, Luddy!"

He sits himself down next to cousin Francis, glancing around warily in response to fratello's nasty glare, "Uh, guten morgen."

Arthur scowls, "You're late to breakfast."

"Ja, well, it's not like I knew when this was… or where for that matter. Why is your house so big?"

The coniglio sighs, "Very well. As I was saying, Mr. Edelstein called last night, and apparently Ms. Héderváry wants him to check in on the twins. He and Gilbert will be here at some point this afternoon."

"Oh great, now I'll have to deal with two potato bastards!" Lovino exclaims in outrage, "It's bad enough I have to deal with one, but two?! That's way too many!"

Ludwig causally eats his eggs.

"Aw, but Lovi, Gil's a riot!" Toni grins.

"Oui, I have to agree that Gilbert is a great friend," Francis chuckles, "Although, I am slightly biased since he's the last of our Bad Touch Trio."

Fratello sputters in frustration, "Yeah, but he's still a dick! And a pervert, too!"

"Regardless of whether or not he's welcome," Arthur interrupts, "Gilbert will be accompanying Mr. Edelstein, just as any other spirit animal would in his position."

I tilt my head, noticing the rather intense expression on Ludwig's face as he continues to poke at the fluffy breakfast food on his plate.

"Très magnifique!" Francis beams, "In the meantime, would any of you like to join me in the gardens this morning for a relaxing game of chess?"

"I think I'll take you up on that, mi amigo, but then we're going to play battleship!" Toni lazily responds with a mouth full of tomato.

Lovino whacks him upside the head, "You moron! Don't talk with your mouth full!"

"Ow, Lovi~" Toni whines, "Every time you hit me is like a dagger to the heart!"

"Tch, just be glad it isn't a real one!"

"Oi! Play nice for once, will you?!" Arthur snaps.

"Ve~ I think I'm going to go painting again!"

"NO! THE LAST TIME YOU WENT PAINTING, YOU BROUGHT HOME THIS BASTARD!"

"But fratello, this time I'm going to paint the vineyards!"

"NO!"

"Lovino, s'il vous plaît, just let the two be!" Cousin Francis sighs, "Honestly, who are you to try and separate l'amour vrai~?"

"TO TRY AND SEPARATE WHAT?!"

"Hey, Toni, why does cousin Francis think Luddy and I are going to fall in love?"

"Eh, hell if I know. I'm more interested in the part of Francis's speech last night when he talked about Lovi and I~"

"ANTONIO, YOU FUCKING PERVERT! STOP TALKING ABOUT ME WHEN I'M SITTING RIGHT HERE!"

Ludwig plants his head in his hand, "Oh mein Gott."

"Luddy!" I exclaim, "Do you want to come with me later when I go paint?"

Fratello turns to me, "WHY THE FUCK WOULD HE NEED TO COME?!"

"Well, he's a big, scary wolf spirit, so I thought that maybe it'd be a good idea!" I smile at Lovino, despite his death-glare, "Like you said, the last time I went out I got attacked by a weird, magical, shadow-thing. And that was just yesterday! Who knows what could happen today?"

He takes a deep breath before snarling out, "And what does that have to do with the potato bastard?!"

"Weeeellll, if Luddy comes with me, then he can make sure I don't die if any more of those shadow monsters show up!"

"I agree with Feli!" Toni chimes in, mouth filled with the red object of his obsession once more.

"Oui, the main protagonist and co-star need more bonding time!"

Arthur sighs, "I don't see any issue with it as long as no one gets hurt."

Fratello makes strangling gestures at the air for a moment, mimicking the act of brutal murder, "WHY IS EVERYONE TURNING AGAINST ME?!"

And that is why, fifteen or so minutes later, I find myself trudging through the neighboring vineyards behind the rather eccentric Vargas.

Vargas.

That name- what- just- how is it possible for the descendant of King Romulus to be this weak?! In his prime, King Romulus Vargas had been the most powerful man alive. He'd conquered modern-day Italy, Germany, Egypt, Greece, and Spain! I mean, sure, since then the Vargas family's lost all their political power, but they still have an infamous name to live up to. Feliciano is nothing like what you'd expect from the great-whatever grandson of such an influential ruler. He is ditzy, clueless, forgetful, far too innocent for his own good, and- and just downright pathetic. And as for the rest of them, I'm baffled. I've been here for less than a day, and even I can tell this family is stupidly dysfunctional. The only thing they ever do is argue. King Romulus managed to unite nearly all of Europe under one banner, and with the wolf spirit Aldrich by his side he was undefeatable. He was a strong, wise ruler that was absolutely barbaric on the battlefield. His subjects adored him, his queen was as intelligent as she was beautiful, their daughter grew up to be one of the greatest rulers of the Vargas dynasty, and he made history as the first human to be magically bound to a spirit animal.

How could the current generation of Vargases, descended from by far the most relevant and overall amazing leader of ancient Europe, the very one who won over almost the entire continent with his wit and might, the one who forever changed relations between mortals and spirits, be this… weak, moronic, toxic to each other and everyone around them? Annoying? The only one that has even the smallest amount of intelligence and sanity is Arthur, and he's not even an actual Vargas.

"Ve~ this looks like a nice spot!" I make a short humming noise, snapping my head up as Feliciano stops in a completely random location. He then flops himself onto the ground, pulling out a large sketchbook and a series of oil paints in all shades and colors from his seemingly bottomless messenger bag.

"And what's so good about here?" I ask, looking around at the wide stretch of nothing but grape vines around us. It's so secluded here… it's actually kind of peaceful, not having to deal with the ridiculous fights always breaking out back at the mansion.

He begins squeezing his paints onto an art pallet, "Well, just look at the grapes!"

I narrow my eyes, "There are grapes all around us. Why not paint those?"

He laughs, a light sound best compared to the soft twinkling chinks of wind chimes, "Silly Luddy, these grapes are different from the others!" He leans closely to the plant; "A lot of grapes become ripe in the summer and fall, so this is normally the best time to paint them before the harvest. Because they're still growing, there's also a lot of variety! Some grapes are purple, some are green, and some have been sitting out in the sun too long and are kind of brown and shriveled up. Some are big and plump, some are tiny, do you see my point? All of the grapes here are different from each other; the reason I chose these ones is because I like the mix of pink and purple. They're so pretty!"

I gently sit next to him on the sun-dried earth, "Huh, I guess that makes sense. Or, at least it makes more sense than spontaneously parking yourself in the middle of a vineyard without reason."

Feliciano grins and giggles in a bubbly fashion, before neatly coating a medium-sized paintbrush in violet and bringing it to canvas. As he works on his painting, color gradually fills the blank space with gentle strokes of purples, pinks, and greens.

He really is amazing, I inwardly comment.

Soon, I find myself subconsciously leaning in to get a better look, my shoulder lightly bumping the Italian's. Neither of us really care, both far too invested in following the brush's airy movements, vibrant, bright green vines trailing down from its tip. Who-knows-how-long later, we still sit here, watching as Feliciano brings the grapes to life. It honestly looks as if I could just reach in and pull one right out of the painting.

I observe the other's face as he works, the look of intense concentration. His amber eyes are almost narrowed to slits, flickering back and forth between the painting and his model. Above, his eyebrows are furrowed, probably without him realizing it. Every once in awhile he stops what he's doing to unsuccessfully brush or blow a lock of stray auburn, of which has been heavily disrupting his focus apparently, out of his face. However, in contrast to his tensed facial features, his hands move elegantly and diligently across the canvas, adding a bit of highlight here, darkening a shade there. For the first time, Feliciano is dead serious about something; even his always-smiling lips are curled into a small pout. And that's when I realize something.

Feliciano's actually kind of cute.

He's practically glowing, fair skin shining in the sun, amber eyes sparkling at the act of artistic creation, soft, caramel-colored hair bouncing playfully before his eyes. His cheeks are slightly puffed up from the amount of thought poured into this and his mouth is puckered innocently. He's adorable. Sheisse. Gottverdammt, what do you do when it suddenly hits you that the ridiculous failure of a human you're stuck with is really, really cute? He's like a puppy, with those normally closed doe eyes; a large, human-sized, moronic trickster of a puppy.

This is stupid, I think to myself as I quietly move away from him, my face flushing at noticing our close proximity.

"Ve~?" Feliciano lifts his gaze to meet mine curiously, "Why did you go away? I was comfortable."

I freeze, this is going to be a long recovery.

A/N:

This sub-part is a bit shorter than you're probably used to from me. No, it's not just that it feels short; it's only about 1,750 words. Normally, these things end up longer than 2,000! Kind of crazy, right? Also, YAY AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA ARE GOING TO SHOW UP! AND THE TWINS' MOM IS HUNGARY! XD You're welcome, internet!

Btw, yes Ludwig and Gilbert will be related in this AU. This will actually come into play in the next few sub-parts!

Another thing I'd like to point out: this fanfic is not the last you'll hear from me. Afterwards, not only am I planning on writing that sequel, but I have a literal fuck-ton of AU ideas for your daily dose of Rome x Germania. AND ONE OF THEM IS A SOULMATE AU IN WHICH ROME IS A SUPERMODEL. SERIOUSLY.

Anyways, now that I've pointed that out, I don't really have that much to cover in this A/N, seeing as the previous few have been so long! See you tomorrow!