Ch.3

As soon as we entered the kitchen, Germany led me over to the table. At first glance, it appeared to be a low table without any chairs. But upon further inspection, I noticed small cushions on the floor at each spot. On the table were a few different dishes, all probably the same ones that had been listed earlier.

"Please, sit where you wish. Just be sure to sit kneeling with both legs tucked under you neatly. It's much more comfortable than it may seem at first. And fix your plate as you please. Eat as much as you like, there is plenty more in the kitchen. I tend to make a lot more than we need", said Japan.

"Oh, okay. Thanks", I replied.

I took a seat on a small dark blue cushion, and surprisingly, it was very comfortable. After the other two got seated, I started fixing my plate. They quickly followed suit, obviously just as hungry, if not more. Once we had our plates fixed, we said 'Itadakimasu', and began eating. Well, they did. I couldn't. Germany had forgotten to teach me the art of using chopsticks. Noticing my obvious confusion, Germany got my attention.

"My deepest apologies, Romano. I forgot to teach you how to eat properly with chopsticks. Here, allow me to help you." Germany reached over and picked up the Asian eating utensils. After breaking them apart, (See A/N below this paragraph.) he asked me which of my hands was dominant. Replying by saying my right, he told me to extend it towards him. Doing as he told me, he placed the chopsticks in my hand, and fixed them the way they needed to be. Instructing me on how to hold, move, set down, and pick them up, he let me try them out for myself. At first I found it somewhat difficult, but after a few tries, all of which I dropped my food back onto my plate or into its bowl, I finally managed to carry a piece to my mouth. The food was like nothing I had ever had before. It was wonderful! I congratulated Japan on his cooking, and in returned he thanked me and hung his head in embarrassment.

((A/N- In many anime shows and other sources, I have seen Japanese people eat with chopsticks. In some/most of them, the chopsticks are connected at the top, I think, and they break them apart to use them.))

We ate, talked, ate some more, and talked some more for the duration of the meal. After a while, I realized I hadn't even touched my sushi. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat it, I had just forgotten about it. Taking a piece of it, I started to dip it into some sort of green paste in a dish on the plate, and put some sort of pale orange herb on it. Getting a generous amount of the paste on the bite I was about to take, I began lifting it to my mouth. Just as my mouth began closing around it, Germany suddenly called my name, sounding like something bad had just happened. I bit down, and turned to him to see what he wanted. He looked like something bad was happening right in front of him. Now noticing Japan's face, I realized he had a face identical to Germany's. Confused, I tilted my head.

Then I felt it. It wasn't sudden, but gradual. At first it was just a small sting, and a funny taste in my mouth. Then it began getting worse. And worse still. After a few more moments, I had something that felt like an herb-flavored fire in my mouth. All at once, my nose and eyes began watering, and I couldn't help but let out a small, pathetic whimper, much to my shame. But this shit was hot! I may as well have had hell growing in there! Then I heard it. Laughter. The sons-of-bitches were laughing at my predicament! How dare they do that when I was in so much pain!

((A/N again! The green paste is wasabi, a Japanese horse radish paste used on sushi, and maybe other foods, and it is the spiciest thing my sister Chelsea and I have ever eaten, no joke! It literally takes a small tap in it with your sushi, just enough to get a slight green color onto your food, and that's enough, unless you are miraculously able to handle incredibly spicy things. Then go right ahead and use as much as you please. It is hot enough to make your nose clear up and start to run, and it makes tears fall from your eyes. I 'm not saying it makes you cry, like with sobbing and stuff, it just causes you to get watery eyes. Seriously, this stuff is hot, like Justin Bieber hot! JK, he would be hotter if he got hit by a bus and chewed on by a pack of ravenous wolves. Sorry JB fans, but he sucks. Even if he IS from Canada. But point said, don't eat wasabi if you have low spicy tolerance levels.))

"Again, my apologies, Romano. I really should have warned you beforehand not to use so much wasabi and ginger on your food. You see, wasabi is very spicy, and only requires a small dot for just one piece of sushi, and sometimes even that can be overwhelming for some people. Your brother had the worst first time with it. He hasn't touched the stuff since. And ginger is a very strong tasting herb. It doesn't even take a full shred of it if you are using it for a small piece of sushi. As soon as I realized what you were about to consume, I tried to stop you, but you ate it before I could really warn you. I'm very sorry. Are you okay?" While Germany had been saying all this, I had managed to swallow the food, and had just started to chug my water, when all of a sudden he took my water from me.

"Hey! What the HELL do you think you are doing, dammit! I need that, in case you hadn't noticed", I yelled.

"Water will only worsen the pain. Use milk instead. There is a small dish of it beside your plate. Water only spreads the spice around your mouth, while milk washes it away." He said this with a calm face, actually looking concerned. He had finally stopped laughing at me. I took a huge mouthful of said milk, and instantly, the burning subsided. So he had been right. I downed the rest of my milk, and went back to my food. This time I chose not to use either the wasabi or ginger. The ginger must have been what made the funny taste in my mouth, so it was off the menu for me, and the wasabi had been too spicy, so it was eternally damned in my mind from now on. I could see why fratello might refuse to eat it after his own incident. If what Germany said was true, and Feliciano had an even more painful time with it, then who could blame him, right?

We all finished our food, with only a few giggles only from the other two since they couldn't help but think back on mine and Feliciano's incidents with wasabi and ginger. I, of course, didn't laugh about it. I didn't find anything funny about it at all. Japan had somehow found the balls to take pictures and record the whole thing. Offering to take everyone's dishes, Japan left the room. Germany and I remained at the table.

"So besides the sushi issue, did you enjoy your first home-cooked Japanese meal", asked Germany.

"Yeah, it was pretty good. I enjoyed it. And you?" I wanted to know if he really liked Japanese food or not. I wasn't sure why I wanted to know, but the question just slipped before I could catch it. Germany seemed slightly surprised at the question, but answered immediately.

"I enjoyed it a lot. Japan always seems to make good food when it's his turn to make dinner."

"Oh, okay. Just wondering", I answered. "Well, I'm gonna go try out that shower like you said, so I should get back to my room. And Japan, good job with the food. It was wonderful!" Japan seemed to be surprised that I had noticed him standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen. He must have forgotten that I represent the mafia side of Italy, unlike my brother, who represented the Vatican side of Italy. He represented the better part of Italy, Heaven, and I represented the worse part, Hell. I was trained to hear the smallest things, see them, feel them, smell them, taste them, to sense their presence. I had known Japan had been there from the very moment he was a few meters from walking through the door. I didn't mind him listening to us talk, though. After all, we had been talking about him and his cooking.

"Please excuse my intruding, and thank you for the compliment, Romano-san. I truly appreciate it." Japan bowed, and I stood and returned the action. I said that I would probably go to bed soon, since I was going to get my bath, and that I would probably be tired afterwards, since I was in a different time zone now, and was already feeling a little tired. ((A/N- I do not actually know if Germany and Italy are in different zones, but I am almost positive, because my phone has this setting where you can have both your own current time showing and another time showing, and it had Berlin, Germany and Rome, Italy in different time zones, plus they are several miles apart, like 100 or something, so yeah, diff. zones, at least in this story. I hereby decree it to be so!))

"Well, goodnight, and sleep well, Romano-san. I do believe I will go to sleep as well now. I shall see you in the morning." Japan then turned and left the kitchen, heading for the hallway that led to the rooms.

"I think I will go to my study and do a little work before bed. If you need anything, just come find me there. It is through my bedroom and into another room, so feel free to come ask me anything. Just knock before you come in, if you don't mind."

"Okay, sure. Well, see you later." I turned and left to go to my room. I was just dying to get to try out my new bathroom. Once I got into the second little room, I stripped down and put my dirty clothes into the hamper. If it had only been Germany and I, I would have dumped the clothes onto the floor just to irk the bastard, but I didn't want to inconvenience Japan. I walked into the large bathroom, and looked over at the regular bathtub, then the whirlpool bathtub. I decided on the whirlpool since I was very tired, and a little something for my muscles would be nice, plus I planned on putting bubble-bath into the water just for fun. It wasn't something I had in my house since luxury wasn't something I worried too much about. I was always focused on the mafia, my pride and joy. I just didn't have time for things such as whirlpools and bubble-bath. This was all new to me.

I grabbed a fresh towel and robe from the closet and went over to the whirlpool. I hung them up and was about to start the water when I heard a knock at the door.

"Herr Romano, may I come in?" It was a girl's voice, probably about 16 to 20 years old. Germany never… then it hit me. On the way to Germany's house, he had briefly mentioned that he had house maids. They didn't really do much but occasionally answer the door and the phone, clean the house occasionally, and watch the house if no one else was home. ((A/N- Herr is German for Mr. The girl is calling Romano "Mr." Romano in order to be polite.))

"Um, I'm not dressed. What do you need?" I tried to sound nice since this was a lady I was talking to. I could fight, curse, and swear at men, but never would I do such things to a lady unless she was in the mafia, and since there was rarely a girl in the mafia, let alone high up in it, I had only fought against two, winning both times. Of course, they lived, since it was a simple small-fight in order to teach them how to fight. I hadn't been trying to do any serious damage, just inflict a few cuts and bruises here and there.

"I am here to draw your bath for you. Herr Beilschmidt mentioned that you would be coming here to his house, and that we should make you as comfortable as possible. I just finished speaking with him, and he said to come draw your bath for you. May I come in? I don't mind if you are naked." I noticed the girl had an accent, and I recognized it as German. I reached over and grabbed my robe from the peg I had hung it up on.

"Okay, come in." The door opened, and a young, pale girl entered the room. She looked no older than 20, and that was the absolute oldest. She had long, shiny, pale brown hair, almost like the color of a deer. She had light blue eyes, but they weren't like Germany's. They were soft, gentle, and feminine.

"Oh, you didn't have to put on your robe for me. I'm used to seeing Herr Beilschmidt ,Herr Vargas, and Herr Honda naked, so you have nothing to worry about, unless you are embarrassed of your body."

"Oh, um no, I'm not ashamed of my body, I just wasn't sure what to do. Thank you for coming to draw my bath. If you don't mind my asking, what do you mean that you are used to seeing the others naked?" Did they run around naked in the house or something?

"Oh, I run their baths sometimes. It's one of the things I do. I also do some of the daily chores such as cleaning, doing laundry, and occasionally cooking if the others are too busy. But that doesn't happen too often, especially if Herr Vargas is here. Never before have I seen such a happy person in my life. He acts like there is no such thing as sadness most of the time. The only time he looks sad is when he gets in trouble, we run out of pasta, which is very rarely, or Germany refuses him entrance into his study, which usually only happens if he has a lot of paperwork. Germany also mentioned that you are Herr Vargas's elder brother. I can see some of the resemblance. You have the same eyes and faces, but you look a little older than him." She sounded so friendly, and didn't even seem fazed by his almost nakedness.

"Well, I'm older by…" Shit! I couldn't just tell her the truth, because the truth would cause her to have a heart attack. My brother and I were separated by about a hundred years, which really wasn't a lot for a country, but for a human like her, it was a very long time. So I lied.

"2 ½ years."

"Oh! That's wonderful! Well, would you like me to run the bath now?"

"Sure, if you want." I moved aside so she could get to the bathtub. She asked me how warm I wanted it, and then she adjusted to my preference. She asked me if I wanted any oils, bath salts, or soaps in the water, and ashamedly, I said I wanted all three, including bubble-bath. She went straight to the closet and grabbed a large bottle of bubble-bath. She went to the filling tub and began pouring in the soap. Then she added the oils, salts, and other soaps. Once she was finished, she told me to remove my robe and get in. I slowly complied, ashamed of what she saw. It wasn't that I wasn't well endowed, (aka big dick and balls.) I just had a lot of scars on my body. About ¼ of them were from the mafia, while the other ¾ were from simply being a nation, therefore being in battles and earning some scars from them.

But she didn't seem very surprised. Then I remembered. She saw the others naked all the time. She was used to seeing our poor, marred bodies on a constant basis.

"If you need anything, I will be right outside. If you would like, I could go have some clothed prepared for you. Anything in particular?" Oh, this was nice. Again, Germany must really not like spoiling guests in this house. Nuh-uh, totally unspoiled.

"Well, actually, in the middle far right drawer of my clothes dresses is my red silk pajamas. Can you get those, please?" I felt bad about making her do everything, but she offered, and besides, I was a guest.

"Of course! I will have them laid out for you on your bed." And with that, she left. I sat in the tub for several minutes, then began bathing. I grabbed a rag, poured a little soap on it, and washed my body. Then I grabbed some shampoo and rubbed it into my hair, making sure to thoroughly scrub my scalp. I rinsed it out and applied conditioner, and while that sat in my hair, I rinsed my body off. Once I finished that, I rinsed most of the conditioner out of my hair, leaving just a little bit in my hair so it would be softer.

I released the water from the tub, and carefully stood up. I stepped out onto the rug and grabbed my towel, drying my body off. I then rubbed it through my hair till it was no longer dripping, just damp, then put my robe on. I walked into the second room and discarded my towel into the hamper. I then walked on into my room, and headed over to my clothes. On my bed were my pajamas, underwear, socks, and on the floor in front of the clothes were some house-shoes. I dressed and put the shoes, and headed out into the hallway. I was starting to feel a little thirsty, so I decided to try and fix myself something to drink. My plans were soon interrupted when I stepped out into the living room. There in one of the recliners was Germany, reading some sort of book with a cup of tea sitting on a small side table beside him. He looked up, noticing my presence.

"So you have finished with your bath, then. Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes. I was just on my way to get something to drink. You never told me that the maids ran the baths, too, or that they saw you guys naked, and laid our clothes out for us."

"Yes, well, I didn't think it was important. So you want something to drink, then? Let me fix you something, since you don't know where everything is yet." What? I could take care of myself! I didn't need the macho potato doing things for me, guest or not.

"Hey! I can do it myself!" Germany looked surprised, but allowed me to go into the kitchen. I looked around for a second, trying to think where the cups might be. I started opening cabinets until I finally found one with little glasses in it. I grabbed one and went to the fridge. I looked around in it till I found what I wanted. I pulled out the orange juice and poured it into my glass. After placing it back where I found it, I grabbed my glass and carefully carried it back with me to my room. Germany had returned to his chair, and had looked up from his book.

"Are you heading to bed now?"

"Yeah."

"Well, goodnight then, and sleep well, Romano."

"Yeah, whatever. You too, bastard. See you in the morning. Maybe." Maybe, just to piss him off, I would sleep in really late. I felt tired enough to sleep in until at least twelve, maybe even one or two. Just whenever I felt like getting up. I headed back to my room and shut the door behind me. I drank my juice and sat the glass on the desk. I would take it back to the kitchen in the morning. Walking over to the bed, I realized the maid must have returned because the covers were turned down, and some really puffy, soft looking pillows were now sitting at the head of the bed. I took off my clothes and sat them on the bedside table. I was Italian, so it wasn't strange for me to sleep naked. They were just for if I left the room, otherwise I would just stay naked. Crawling under the covers, I got comfortable, then reached over, and clicked my lamp off. I felt something under the covers with me, and pulled it out, switching on the lamp. It was my special pillow. The one I didn't even recall packing. It was one that was given to me when I was a baby. My tomato pillow. It had managed to survive from the time I lived in Austria's house, through my time in Spain's house, all the way up to now. The only people to know about it were Spain, Belgium, and Netherlands, and that was because every one of them, at some point in time, had come into my room without knocking when I was little and caught me with it. I had kept it hidden at Austria's house because I was afraid he might try to get rid of it. At Spain's house, it was kept hidden for the same reasons, and also because I didn't want them teasing me about it or saying it was cute, especially Spain. That thought suddenly told me exactly who must have packed the pillow among my things. SPAIN! He had dropped by some time while I was packing clothes, so he must have seen my pillow, and stuffed it down into my clothes, out of sight. The bastard. He must have remembered I couldn't sleep well without it. I had forgotten until the day I was to leave. I had looked everywhere for it, but of course I couldn't find it, since Spain had already packed it for me. I had to remember to call him tomorrow and thank him aka yell at him for putting it in with my stuff without telling me. After settling back in and turning my lamp back off, I laid my head down. After about a minute or two, I fell asleep.

A/N- If there are any mistakes, please tell me! I have a beta-reader, but I don't know if we will catch all the mistakes.

Thank you so much, YaoiLuvr! You are a huge help! :3

Also, tell me what should happen next, like if he should have erotic, wet dreams about his German Bitch or something JK JK JK! But really, I need ideas! I don't think there are any translations or notes needed, since I did that already. If there are questions, message me. In fact, message me if you just want to talk or if you have ideas. I'm open to your ideas! And give me criticism. Good or bad. I want to know what you think.