Chapter 4: Why Can't We Be Friends~?

Madrid POV

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

The Spanish city found herself skipping happily down the relatively empty street, swinging her arms by her sides as she looked up at the buildings that she passed by. The city of Rome was quite the sight, even on those streets and in areas not so well renowned for some masterpiece of architecture or art. Plus, it was such a big area that she could get away from the biggest crowds easily, even if she would've had fun talking with them. The person she was looking for wasn't that great of a talker…

She came upon one of the parks that dotted the area and entered it, still grinning widely. She had decided to go on a trip of her own and so had left Spain behind at his house several hours earlier. Romano had also been there, though it hadn't taken too long for him to get irate at the more relaxed of the two men and start upsetting Madrid. Sure, she could handle their bickering just fine if she wanted to, but she really didn't feel like doing so today and had instead left them behind and took an impromptu visit to her friend's place. Not that the mentioned friend knew a thing about it, but that's how almost all of Madrid's visits went. It should be expected by this point in time.

Speaking of which…

Who but her best buddy—at least in her opinion—would be sitting on a bench, facing away from her?

Needless to say, Madrid's pace rapidly picked up, until she pulled to a stop right in front of the other capital. Unfortunately, Roma hadn't noticed her yet, and the spiky-haired brunette was still staring aimlessly into space. The Spaniard would just have to fix that, wouldn't she?

And so, she smiled widely, found where her friend's two crossed hairclips were, and hugged her.

A moment later, Rome screamed and scuttled away quickly from the now grinning city, who was playing with the barrettes in her own hair. She couldn't help but think how cute Roma looked when she did that, especially since she was staring wide-eyed at her and was actually reacting to something. Then again, it wasn't the hug that did anything.

It was her hair curl, which the elder usually managed to hide in her hair.

Problem: Madrid had been friends, at least in some way, with Rome for a long time, and she knew—almost—all of the other's secrets. Including the one about her hair curl—and her using hair clips so she could hold it down so no one else would notice it. Obviously, she had failed in that aspect…

It didn't take long for the Italian to sit properly on the bench—though now pressed up against the other side of it—and to resume her seeming contemplation of whatever happened to be in front of her, which at the moment was the ground at her feet. However, the Spaniard was not about to ignore who she considered to be her best buddy and so scooted closer to the other.

"How have you been, Roma? I haven't seen you in a while!" Madrid turned towards her fellow city, grinning widely at her.

The other took a moment to respond. "Fine." She still wasn't looking up from her sandals.

Madrid pouted. "Roooma, why won't you talk with me? I haven't seen you in forever and all I want to do is have a conversation with you."

"Yeah," The other replied, sounding rather sarcastic though it was a little hard to tell with her. Chica never seemed to talk, but today she was speaking even less than normal.

So Madrid took that moment of slightly awkward silence to think.

And think.

Oh.

Oh.

"…Is it about Venecia again?"

Another pause, and then a slow nod from the Italian capital. "Sì, it is."

"Aww, Fina, it'll be alright, I'm here…" The Spaniard hugged the other around her arms gently, smiling in what she thought was a reassuring manner. "It's only a matter of time before we find tu hermana, Fina, and then everything will be back to normal, sí?" She continued to mutter 'It's only a matter of time' partially to herself and partially to the still mostly silent girl next to her- but she had reason to be so.

You see, very few cities, capitals, or nations knew about the disappearance of Venice, back sometime after the end of World War Two. In fact, Madrid herself only knew of it because she had been listening in on a conversation between Romano and Rome—namely the first one they had about the issue. The city had barely been able to choke out a single coherent sentence—"She's gone!"—before breaking down hysterically into tears. Though Madrid had been panicking—who had gone? Who had disappeared?—she was glad later on that she was the only one listening in. She couldn't help but have the feeling that Spain wouldn't have been able to keep his mouth shut as long as she did.

It figures out that Italy Veneziano himself had then come in, actually sobering down enough to be able to say that his (in a way) namesake city had spent the day among the canals and hadn't come back that evening, and neither Rome nor the other Italian cities that helped her, namely Padua and Treviso, had been able to find her in their desperate search. Rome, stressed over post-war political and military issues in the country and other such factors, snapped. She hadn't been the same since.

"It's only a matter of time, Serafina…"

A/N: Yep, it's at the bottom this time. Decided to switch things up. ;] Anyways, I'm looking for a beta. Not a "correct my horrid grammar/spelling" sort of beta (as I'm a bit of a Grammar Nazi sometimes) but more of a "this story looks good/the canon characters are in character" beta. I just need someone willing to read this over ahead of time and make sure that the writing looks good. Anyone up to doing that?

Speaking of which, I'm not sure why exactly this took such a depressing turn. Talk about bipolar writing... Ah well, the next chapter shouldn't be so much of a downer! There'll be more new cities in there, including mentions of a (slightly plot related) event and some more of my headcanon thing relating to the cities/capitals. Hope y'all aren't wanting to kill me by now with having two non-capitals in this story so far (even if one was only mentioned). One was more of a "I should have done more research" turned into "this actually worked out quite well for story purposes mwahahah" while the other... I justified because there was a certain half of a country (coughVenezianocough) named after her, and the idea relating to her kind of took off after that... Just please, don't hurt me! I have relatives in the city you live in! /shot

Ahem- as to translations, I think there's only one that might need to be explained:

Tu hermana (Spanish)- Your sister

Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll try to update the next chapter a bit sooner!