Chapter 4- Tempo di Conversazione

When Romano got home from his two-hour flight, he found Veniziano shakily cutting a tomato in the kitchen. He stood quietly in the doorway and watched his younger brother intently, trying to see he was reacting to Romano's disappearance. His brother stood there at the counter, slicing the tomato unevenly (something he almost never did) and trying to hum a happy song between sobs. Romano continued to watch his fratello until eventually Veniziano cut himself on the chefs knife. He whirled around to go get a band-aid and spotted his brother in the doorway. "Romano! You're back!", he shouted. He ran to Romano and wrapped him in a tight brotherly embrace. Suddenly, his tone became angrier, "Where the hell have you been!?", he loudly asked Romano.

Veniziano's angry outburst momentarily caught Romano off guard, seeing as his brother always used a positive tone. "Uhhh... Welll I was out running errands. Yeah! I had to attend to some things in Napoli. That was all...", he nervously replied.

Veniziano broke the embrace and stood at arms length from Romano.

"You could have told me.", he said, "This morning you said you would make breakfast, then when I went down stairs the house was empty and nothing in the kitchen had even been touched. I was so worried... I called Germany to see if maybe you went to go and try to get your mustache revenge again, but he said he hadn't seen you all day!"

"Well I'm back now."

" Per favore, tell me next time you decide that you need to disappear for nine hours, okay?"

"Fine, I will."

"Grazie."

Romano looked over his brothers shoulder at the kitchen island, which had a small pile of vegetables and spice jars on it; and then over to the stove top, where two large pots sat steaming like Icelandic geysers. It was then that the aromatic smell of his brother's famous cooking finally drifted to his nose. He returned his gaze to his brother and asked, "So what's for dinner?"

During dinner Veniziano pelted Romano with a barrage of questions, all of which related to his "errands in Napoli". For every question, Romano gave an answer; some good, some obvious that it was a lie. But he was not worried about Veniziano trying to validate his excuses. The only thing his brother ever validates is the amount of food in the pantry.

That night Romano forced his brother to sleep in another bed. This was met with furious cries of protest, but Romano held his ground and made Veniziano sleep alone in another bed. Romano needed the privacy tonight. He curled himself under the covers, feeling the weight of the fabric. It felt heavy and scratchy, despite being made of Egyptian cotton. (The bed set was an apology gift from Turkey.) Figuring that it was only because he was still reeling over the events in Madrid, Romano tried to drift to sleep.

After hours of tossing and turning, Romano gave up on trying to fall to sleep. For about five minutes he just laid there, running Spain's death over in his mind. Why was he so conflicted? It's not like he was regretting his actions, right? Right?

"I'll talk to Finland tomorrow.", Romano said to himself, "He'll tell me if I made the right choice. I can't have regrets; I left them all behind with Spain's body... I think..."

He didn't get much sleep that night, the constant shifting of his emotions keeping him up. He was half-asleep when he told his brother he was leaving, again, to visit Finland. Veniziano was upset that Romano was leaving again, but glad he was informed before hand this time. He didn't sleep on the flight to Helsinki; he was to nervous to close his eyes, nervous about what Finland would say when Romano broke the news about what he did.

After a 3 hour flight the plane touched down on the icy tarmac of the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. Stepping of the plane he took in the village-like appearance of Finland's capital and largest city. The fact that it was night out, 4 degrees celsius outside, and snowing didn't help Romano's opinion of the city

"I knew I should have brought my heavy coat."

I finally finished this update... Sorry it's super short. I want to save what's next for the next chapter. I can't believe people still read this story. I left it months ago to work on my second, so thanks to everyone that still checked it out! I think from now on I'll try to balance out my effort on each story, mainly so that I can finish this one.

Please review!