Chapter 2

The meeting ended when the sun was beginning to set. The wind that was warm was already cold and the Italian felt chills run up his spine each time it grazed past his skin. Each time he breathed out from his mouth, white puff of what seemed like smoke appeared in front and disappeared immediately after.

With quick steps, Romano made his way into the parking lot and to his car, where he slipped in and rushed to turn on the heater. The cold air that blew out at first warmed up soon, and he felt his fingers begin to come back to life. With those fingers, Romano took out his cellphone and checked his messages. He scanned through several messages that were new, but couldn't find one that was worth answering, so just closed it again and placed it back into his pocket. After doing so, with his now warm fingertips he pushed a few buttons to turn on the radio. A soft tune played in the car, and though Romano couldn't understand the language in which this female singer sang in, he allowed himself to close his eyes and listen.

Italy was most likely still in his bed with his high fever. Romano figured that he would have to drive home as soon as possible, but safely as well.

"Romano's driving is really insane…"

Just as the car began to move, a voice rang in his head. It was the words that Romano heard almost every day from Spain after he first got his driver's license. Yes, Romano knew his driving skills were not one people could call safe. However, being told that by somebody was not something the young male was pleased about back then, and each time he heard Spain say those words, he would suddenly slam on the breaks out of the blue or jerk the steering wheel. Spain would always let out a surprised yelp, and to Romano, that itself gave him satisfaction. He would laugh, and though Spain scolded him with words, he too never was truly angry at his lad.

I keep thinking about him now days…

It had been a while since the last time Romano had seen his lover. He hadn't been able to find the time to call him, either. The longer the time of not being able to see the grinning Spaniard, the more Romano felt himself melt with loneliness in his heart.

He had to see him soon. He wanted to see Spain.

Romano quietly began to think of the schedule of this week. If Italy couldn't bring himself back to his good health soon, Romano figured he would have to move around to places for meetings that his brother had planned. If only he could only get the time to have one day off – or not even; half a day or only a few hours would suffice, he just wanted to be with the Spaniard for a bit. He wanted to be able to run his fingers across the tanned skin when he wished to, kiss those lips when he wanted to, and laugh about stupid things together. He wanted to make some time for that.

He wanted the Spaniard to call him stupid names. He wanted to see Spain smile, and wanted Spain to hug him tight.

"I need to check my schedule when I get home…"

Muttering to himself out loud to make sure to remember doing so, Romano felt a tiny hint of a smile come to his face. He didn't mind having to work for days straight to be able to make some time to catch a flight.

It was too long since the last time he'd seen Spain.

"Veneziano, can you eat?"

Opening the front door and walking in, Romano asked to the dead silence he was welcomed with. Assuming with only that, Romano guessed that his younger brother was still in bed with his fever, and when he went to check he found that his guess was right. Veneziano turned his head to recognize his brother walking into the room and as if it was too much trouble to open his mouth, weakly shook his head from side to side to respond to the question.

"I'll make soup later, so sleep until then," Romano said as he placed his hand on his brother's forehead. However, his hand didn't pick up any temperature; it was like he was just touching something soft that wasn't hot, warm, or cold, and Romano froze at that fact. Just as he began to question what just happened, the temperature suddenly registered into Romano's hand and he felt the high fever that was torturing his brother.

There was a moment where he could not feel the temperature. That very moment caused Romano to stare at his hand that was still on his brother's forehead in disbelief, worry and confusion flickering in his hues.

"…Fratello?" The soft voice was heard, "Fratello's hand is so cold, it feels good…"

With Veneziano's words, Romano jumped slightly and was brought back to reality, out of his thoughts. His brother's temperature was now registering in his hand completely. Figuring it was just himself feeling as though something weird happened, Romano gently slid his hand up and combed his fingers through his brother's hair comfortingly.

"…Just keep sleeping. You'll get better soon."

"Si…"

"Buonanotte."

After nodding once, the younger brother closed his eyes and steadied his breaths. After it became steady, indicating that the other was indeed sleeping, Romano quietly lifted himself from his sitting position next to the bed and left the room, closing the door carefully, sighing right after.

But he had no time to be standing around still, either. For now, he had to make something that his sickly brother could eat, and have it be healthy so that his brother can gain his energy back as soon as possible. Trying to remember the contents inside the fridge, Romano flipped through the recipe cookbook he had in his mind. There was still a lot of vegetables in this house… If he cut it into tiny pieces and boiled it all until it fell apart as soon as one would put it in their mouth, perhaps Veneziano could eat a bit.

"Time to make it…" Commanding himself to the action, Romano felt himself stretch in preparation. He headed to the kitchen and took out the vegetables he intended to use from the fridge. With a knife he began to chop them into tiny pieces, his mind wandering off to other thoughts as he did the simple task.

After finishing this and feeding it to Veneziano along with some medicine, I should call Spain with my schedule in hand.

He couldn't remember his own schedule (especially now that he had to know Veneziano's as well), and he was sure Spain hardly remember his, but he wanted to make even just enough time to see Spain and talk to him for a few minutes. Meetings that included all the countries have not been done in a while now, and since Veneziano usually was the one who went out to other countries to settle businesses, it was hard to see Spain unless he really made some time and plans to do so.

What did he want to talk about first when he saw Spain? There were a lot of things he wanted to tell the Spaniard. How he was able to wake up now days without having to use the alarm clock. How the cat that was thrown away at a park was following Romano often. How the daisies in the garden bloomed beautifully. And then how they died out without people really noticing them. How he was able to not sleep during meetings anymore. How he couldn't taste the extra salt that was on the ham. Or about just now, when he touched Veneziano's forehead but it took a while for him to register the heat.

But for now, he just wanted to say "I missed you."

While cutting the tomatoes for the soup, Romano kept his thoughts wandering. That was when he felt something on his fingertip, making him blink and glance down to the source.

"…Huh?"

The fingertip was red. It was much more crimson than the tomato itself. It came from his left middle finger, and the color reminded Romano of Spain's flag.

What came from the large gash on his middle finger was a flow of blood. He didn't notice it at all. No, it wasn't like he didn't notice… He didn't even feel the pain when he cut himself with the sharp knife. Though Romano stared at the wide open cut that had blood flowing out of it, he still did not feel the pain.

"Hello, Spain?"

The ringing tone went off twice before it suddenly stopped and Romano heard an excited "Hello?" coming from the other side of the line. As he called out the other's name with a chuckle, the excited voice suddenly changed to what sounded like one would sound like when almost crying, and Romano's name was muttered into the Italian's ear.

"It's been too long… I thought you forgot about me…"

"How the hell would I forget about your stupidity?"

"But we haven't seen each other in too long! I finally heard your voice… How have you been?"

The voice that clearly cared for his Italian lover soothed Romano's heart, and after muttering a small, "Yeah," he continued on with, "I'm well. But Veneziano is a bit sick at the moment…" As he said so, the voice on the other side let out a surprised gasp.

"Huh? Italy's sick? What happened?"

"He has a fever. I just gave him some soup and medicine and now he's sleeping. I think it's just a cold, but it seems pretty bad… For now, I'm taking over all his work."

"So you're going to be busy…" Though the voice seemed disappointed, it was nothing that made Romano feel guilty about it.

"Yeah, I'll be busy." Though Romano found himself dreading that fact, he sighed softly and lightly shrugged. "But I can make some time to see you." With his right hand he held his phone, and with his left, he began to flip the pages to his schedule book.

"Really?" A surprised gasp came from the phone and Romano chuckled once more, stopping at the page of the current month's schedule page. Though the tiny letters on each and every day made him slightly dizzy, Romano searched for an opening that he could fit in a visitation.

"W-Wait, I'll find my schedule!"

"Why are you in a hurry? I'll be here, put your phone down and use both hands."

"Well, I didn't know we could see each other! Gah, where's my schedule book?"

Romano could almost see the image of Spain on the other side of the line, searching frantically around the room with one hand holding the phone, the other moving everything around to find his tiny red booklet. Imagining Spain rushing around the house with his hand all over the place, the Italian gave a small thought before asking, "What about the drawer next to your bed? You usually put books and stuff in there without thinking." There was a slight pause, and it was followed right after with a voice that exclaimed "Aha!", indicating that the booklet was found, and Romano finally laughed. He could hear the pages getting flipped on the other side.

"Hm… I have to work from tomorrow, three days in my country, so I can't leave this place." After stating so sadly, Spain continued with a question, "When are you available?"

"…Right when you finish your job, I have the next five days booked in Napoli."

"You finish in five days? Then what about the next day? I have to work from the afternoon on that day, but if all goes well, we should be able to spend half the day together."

Romano thought about Spain's idea. It would be a rush, but if he slept through the travels there should be no problem. Well, he might even not have to sleep. After all, even a boring meeting didn't make him feel sleepy. And besides, no matter how hard it was to fit it into the schedule and move around, Romano wanted to see Spain. He wanted to have Spain run his rough fingers against his skin and be able to feel the other close to him.

"Alright, I will go with that plan."

"I know it'll be a rough trip, and I'm sorry about that… But I'm excited to finally be able to see you." When Romano heard that voice, he felt the smile tug at his lips as he imagined Spain's face. It was such a shame he couldn't be there right now to see it. Spain must have been having the biggest smile on his face at the current moment as he held the phone to his ear.

Spain's voice melted Romano's fear slowly like the bright sun against ice. The younger male lifted his left hand after he placed the schedule book to the side so he could stare at the middle finger with the bandage covering the large gash. The blood kept flowing as if it never knew how to stop, but no matter how long Romano waited, no pain rushed to register in his brain. That itself brought fear into Romano's cowardly mind, and he could only question the reason as to why Spain wasn't here to explain and comfort him about it. He wanted to cling to his lover and former caregiver and cry, asking for the reason of this mystery. Spain would most likely pet his head and hug his form while saying, "It's okay."

Even if it really wasn't okay, if Spain said it was, Romano was always able to think as so. Spain's words were like magical spells. Just a moment ago, Romano was scared, but after the phone connected the fear disappeared without trace for now.

In reality, Romano was thinking of telling Spain what was happening over the phone. However, he was afraid he couldn't explain it well over the phone without being able to see Spain's face for reactions, and besides, he was much calmer now that he heard Spain's voice, so he found no reason to rush it. There was no need to worry Spain now, and if he waited for a week, he could explain everything face to face with the other country. Might as well calm down and explain it one on one later. They could have some Sherry and talk like it was a normal every day conversation topic.

"You work tomorrow, right? Don't you have to get up early?"

"Mhm. I have to wake up at six."

"Woah, don't sleep in."

"You can't be saying that to me, Romano… You're the one who can't wake up in the morning, not me."

Oh yeah, Spain doesn't know I can wake up early on my own yet…

Grinning to himself at that thought, Romano decided to not say it now. He was going to tell this to his lover as a surprise when he saw him. It was one of the topics he was going to have to keep for that day. "Well, make sure you wake up at six then and head to work. I have to go to a meeting tomorrow, too."

"Is that so? Well, good luck to both of us, then!"

After responding with a small 'yeah', Romano looked at the clock and figured it was time to hang up. He really wanted to keep talking with the Spaniard, but he really had to control himself. Phone bills these days… Besides, for the past few minutes Romano could hear what he figured was sleepiness mixed into Spain's voice.

"Well then…"

"Mn… Buenas noches."

"Si… Buonanotte."

With that, Romano took the phone away from his ear and was about to turn off the phone, when suddenly the Spaniard exclaimed, "Oh, Romano! Wait!", causing the Italian to stop and bring the phone back to his ear in question. After a pause, Spain continued on, worry mixed into his voice as he spoke. "You said Italy's sick? Then please be careful… Unlike people, we countries can fall ill anytime under that circumstance… Just be ready, ok?"

If he remembered correctly, it was still in the files in the storage. Romano made sure he stayed quiet so he wouldn't wake his brother and searched around. Though the room was slightly a freezing temperature, Romano felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck. Pushing away the heavy items, Romano went deeper into the storage room, searching.

The words Spain said to him repeated continuously in his head for god knows how many times now. He forgot, but a country's illness was much different to a normal person's. After World War I, other than a tiny percentage of the world, majority of the nations had fallen ill. At that time, not only Veneziano, but Romano too was attacked with an extremely high fever. He remembered that each time on felt better, the other would as well, but it was always not too long before one fell back ill, dragging the other down into the illness as well.

A country's illness was only affected by the movements in the nation itself. Unlike people, who fell ill from being tired and eating unhealthily, nations were much more durable and needed different laws to come into place for them to have the same symptoms. As Romano continued to search, his thoughts wandered off to thinking of the current Italy itself as a nation a whole. It was full of debt, people were jobless, and they were running poor. No doubt it had all the laws in place for the brothers to fall ill. That only confused Romano even more, causing him to raise his hand and mess his hair up using his fingers to scratch it around roughly. He could hear the rough, troubled breathing from the room next door from his brother, struggling with the fever. "…Why the hell am I fine…?"

The confused and now annoyed male kicked the box nearby and watched it fall over. From the unsealed box came out what seemed like thousands of books and notes. Realizing he found what he was looking for, Romano sat down next to the box and dug through the books and papers, finally finding a packet of papers stuck together with several clips. The title on the front wrote "World Flu Epidemic", making Romano cringe at the memory.

He couldn't forget how hard it was when all the nations fell ill after World War I. He scanned the words that detailed the events and situations at that time. When he found a line he was searching for, Romano stopped momentarily and took a deep breath before he reread it carefully out loud, as if to make himself listen. "Though the epidemic began mainly in the Soviet Union, it spread across Europe, and our representatives were no exception. Italy -Veneziano and Italy-Romano both fell ill and claimed the similar symptoms…"

He remembered being in bed with Veneziano at this time, fighting a high fever and not being able to eat. If that was the case, why were there differences between them now?

The fingers that held the page in place began to shake. The bandage on his left finger caught his attention once more, causing him to bite his lips as fear reemerged within him. Still no pain.

Placing the papers back into the box, Romano pushed it aside and left the room, feeling slightly dizzy with the facts now pushed in his mind. Though he already took a shower, Romano was covered in sweat. Whether it was from the heat that was produced when he moved around or just because he was in a panicked state, Romano wasn't too sure. All he knew right now was that he didn't feel up to taking another bath.

He walked into his own room and slumped himself over his bed. On the alarm clock on the side table next to his bed, the digital numbers showed that it was past midnight. He had to get up early the next day. Though he was awake pretty much all day, from not having taken his siesta, Romano felt wide awake, but he figured if he didn't sleep now it could affect his work the following day. Though he didn't feel sleepy, Romano took off all his clothing, which were drenched in sweat, and crawled under the covers. Wrapping himself tightly, he sighed and closed his eyes, feeling his body warm up with the help of the thick blanket. He tried to think of peaceful things he heard people often talk about when they said they had a good dream. Like about having grown wings and flying around in the quiet sky. Or maybe about his childhood when he was playing all day without a worry in his mind? Yes… Back then, Spain would almost always come to his side and pet his lad's head while giving the boy the smile that Romano loved.

Often times the hand traveled wrong, and it had fingers graze against the hair that stuck out of Romano's head, and the boy would close his mouth tightly to avoid weird noises coming from himself, and would glare up to the Spaniard. Not knowing why he was getting glared at, Spain would hesitantly laugh and say "Lo siento," and pull his hand away—

…Usually by this time in thought, Romano found himself asleep, but drowsiness refused to come to Romano's aid. Instead, Romano felt himself wake up further. He wasn't able to take his mid-day nap, so in reality he should be exhausted, but even so.

At times, Romano found it difficult to sleep. When that happened, he used to climb into Spain's bed and have him sing a lullaby, or Spain would give him a kiss on the forehead and say it was a charm to get him to sleep. Romano then would be able to relax fully and put himself to sleep. He tried to think that the Spaniard was doing it to him right now, and tried to lure himself to sleep, but remembered all the weird things that were happening to his body and slowly opened his eyes. Darkness entered his vision and made him shiver slightly.

It was still long until morning came. For the first time in his life, Romano felt that he experienced exactly how long a night was.

"Veneziano, how are you feeling?"

Romano opened the door slowly and peeked in, and he saw his brother lying on bed, his face still flushed in pink. The younger brother parted his lips in response and took a few quick breaths as if he couldn't breathe calmly without lacking of oxygen. Romano felt something sting him inside at the sight.

"Fratello…" After Veneziano saw his brother, he let out a sigh-like voice that made it sound as if he was suddenly calmed upon seeing someone he knew, "I don't think I can make it today, either…"

"I can see that. I'll go to the meeting today too, so don't push yourself too hard."

"Si… Mi dispiace…"

"Idiota, I told you this yesterday, too…" As he continued on with his words, Romano felt something tug his inner strings but he decided to ignore the feeling of sudden doubt, "I'm 'Italy' too."

"Hehe… You're right. Grazie, fratello."

Romano placed a hand over his younger brother's eyes and sighed. He wasn't too sure whether it was to calm himself (or his brother, for that matter) or he wanted to cover his brother's eyes from seeing the pang of worry he might have shown on his face. "I'm going now, so stay in bed today too, got it?"

Veneziano sighed out a small "Si~" before he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. After he was sure that his brother was off to dreamland once more, Romano left the room and closed the door behind himself. He needed to get ready to leave for today's meeting.

He wasn't able to sleep at all last night. Romano felt as if it was the longest night in his entire lifetime. Drowsiness still didn't come to him either, and still the Italian didn't feel as if he needed to sleep at all to begin with. He finally slid out of bed at 4am that morning. After laying around on the couch and reading some books he found in the nearby bookshelf in the living room, Romano was able to look up at the clock to find that it was six in the morning.

"I have to wake up at six."

When he remembered hearing that on the phone the night before, Romano thought about his doubt of the Spaniard being awake before he stood up from the couch and grabbed his phone. He dialed a familiar number and pressed the phone against his ear.

"Hello…" The voice on the other side of the line spoke sleepily, "What's wrong, Romano…? It's so early…"

"Were you awake?"

"Hmm…? Oh… Well… I want to say yes, but honestly, I woke up from the phone ringing… What about you? You're up quite early… You have to leave in the morning, too?"

"…Well, yeah. I guess it's something like that." Romano lied a tiny lie.

The exhausted Spaniard didn't notice Romano's voice shifting at that lie and continued on, "Wow… You can wake up early on your own now!" Romano heard rustling on the other side and knew that Spain had lifted himself off the bed as he kept talking, "Thank you for waking me up. I'm going to go get ready for work now, so you have a good day."

"Si… Do your best."

"Hm, you too. Don't fall asleep at the meeting."

Without bothering to answer the Spaniard, Romano turned off the call. Spain would probably now head to work; if he kept talking, Romano had no doubt that Spain would keep chit-chatting along and forget the fact he had to leave for work. Romano, too, had to get ready to leave once more and head to the same meeting as yesterday. Glancing at the clock, Romano saw that it was still too early and picked up the television remote. After slumping back down on the comfortable couch, he flipped the device on and mindlessly stared at the screen. He didn't really feel too hungry to eat breakfast, but at the same time saw no need to make coffee either, so just continued watching television until the clock went off above the television, indicating that Romano had to leave for work. He turned off the television and grabbed his jacket before he said loudly, "I'm leaving now," towards his brother's room. By the looks of not getting any answer to it, Romano assumed that his brother was asleep. Smiling contently at that, Romano head out to the parking lot and slipped himself into the car.

He got there earlier than he expected. Romano doubted he was the first one there, but in his mind he played the scenario in which he was, where he could sip some tea and comment on the others being late like he has always been done to. With that in mind, he grinned slightly but quickly pushed the expression aside when he reached the door to the room.

"Romano…?" The soft voice spoke up when he walked into the room. Japan blinked in surprise. "You're here early."

"It's just you here? Where's the macho potato bastard?"

"Germany called in and said he got stuck in traffic so is going to be slightly late. He should be here soon, though." Nodding to show he understood, Romano took a seat on the chair nearest to the door. As if he couldn't believe that he was here early, Japan couldn't help but to glance at his friend's older brother several times. Romano just closed his eyes and decided to ignore it. He was usually late, but for the last two days he showed up before the meeting started. It was not strange for Japan to be staring at him in disbelief.

"…"

Japan doesn't talk much. And to add onto that, Romano wasn't really close to the Asian nation as his brother was, so naturally silence filled the room the two were in. The first one who couldn't stand the silence was Romano, and he opened his eyes slightly to be able to see Japan before he let out a small "Hey," and was answered with a "Yes?" by the smaller male.

"…It's about a book I have been reading, but…"

"Mhm?"

"There's these brothers, who are always together… And when one gets hurt or sick, the other gets the same symptoms. But one day, one of the brothers got sick but the other didn't. And that's not it; it's like the other brother keeps losing his senses. He doesn't feel pain when he's cut, can't sleep at night, and there's a lot more but… Why do you think that happened?"

"…It's already strange at the point that that even happens to begin with. It's like they share a strange bond…"

"Yeah. But to them, that was normal. And when suddenly it stops being that way, they get very confused. Do you think it's some illness that's going on?"

Japan shook his head slowly. "Illness… Well, maybe, but at the same time, maybe not. I am old but sadly I have never heard of such symptoms. Maybe China would know…"

China…?

Romano thought quietly to himself. It wasn't like he was close to the nation or anything socially, but it was true that the most ancient nation would know something about this… "If you'd like, I could ask him about it?" As if he noticed how worried and in thought Romano looked, Japan asked as he gave his familiar gentle smile.

"Well… It's just a book though."

"Yes, but you want to know something about it, right? He might know that book and may tell you more about its origins… So what do you say?" Tilting his head, Japan asked slowly and waited for Romano to respond. When the Italian finally gave a nod, Japan nodded back in understanding and went back to looking down at the paperwork in front of him. "I will ask him today after the meeting, then."

That was when the two nations heard the door open behind them, and Romano turned to the noise fully. Japan merely glanced up and nodded in greeting to the blond nation that walked in. "I'm sorry, but I overheard what you two were talking about. I could ask about it to my brother as well."

"I didn't ask your potato ass to hear about it. It's rude to eavesdrop, you know?"

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I overheard it from the other side of the door. I was going to walk in but felt bad for stopping you two in the middle of the conversation." Germany stated, looking slightly guilty. Romano saw that expression and decided he couldn't say anything more than he already had.

For now, China and Prussia were going to be told about his 'story's' situation. He couldn't hope that at least one of them would know what was going on with him. "I just have one request to you two, other than that…" Romano started, and Germany and Japan glanced back slowly. At that, Romano uneasily shifted his gaze away and mumbled loud enough for them both to hear, "Can you not tell Spain or Veneziano about this? I don't want them thinking I've gone crazy or anything, getting all worked up about a story…"

As if to think that Romano was very caring for his partner/lover and his brother, the two nodded in understanding and Germany muttered, "Understood."

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