Chapter Nine: Laughter and North Italy

Italy was happy, heck he always was, but since he made a new friend in Diane, his mood had lightened. She did say that she loved to make people laugh, and she had made the Italian laughed several times over the course of the week. But Italy and his brother had to leave for the World Meeting soon. Diane was trying her best to do something before then, Italy just couldn't figure out what. That was until she had a little assistance.

Italy hung up the phone. Spain, who had gotten himself sick a few days prior, was feeling well enough to visit the Italy brothers. Hopefully, a visit from Spain would lighten his brother's mood.

"Hey, Feliciano!" shouted a voice. Italy jumped at the sound of his human name. He quickly turned around and came face-to-face with Diane, who was giggling. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"It's alright, bella," replied Italy, "Is there anything you need?" Diane balanced on her heels, twirling a light brown curl around her finger.

"Yeah," she said after a moment's thought, "I need your help." Italy tilted his head in confusion. No one asked him for help...he was just...Italy.

"You need my help?" Italy repeated. Diane nodded. "With what?"

"Well, you're smiling all the time. I was wondering if you could give me a little bit of your happiness to help me out!"

"I'm still confused about what you want me to help you with."

"I want to make Lovino smile." Italy's honey brown eyes grew wider than normal. "Not once since I got here has he even smiled. Not one bit! I wanna see him smile just one time. Please? You must know some way or someone that can make him smile!" Italy leaned back against the wall.

"Only two people I can think of can mio fratello smile. One of them is on a trip with some friends, I don't know when they'll get back. But...Antonio is on his way over. He should be here any minute." Diane raised an eyebrow as her baby blues lit up with curiosity.

"Who's Antonio?"

"He's our friend. He sort of raised Lovino, and I always see him smile whenever he's around. Antonio's also the Representative for Spain, so we're all going to head over to the meeting tomorrow together!" Diane nodded as she rocked on her heels. She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt and looked up at the ceiling.

"I forgot about the meeting thing..." she said, "You guys will be back, right?" Italy nodded.

"Si! Two days from now. We won't be gone long." Diane nodded.

"Well then. You and me will make Lovino smile! You can bet on it!"

Pinkie wasn't so sure if her plan would work. She had spent the entire morning drawing it up, and now all she had to do was wait for this "Antonio" guy to arrive.
She tapped her pencil against the paper she had in her hands when there was a knock on the door. Perking up, Pinkie lifted her head and turned towards the wooden object. There was another Earth girl stood up and answered it. At the door was a man. He was tan, with messy brown hair and brilliant green eyes. He was smiling brightly.

"Hi?" The foreign girl said with uncertainty.

"Hola! ¿Me puede decir donde Feliciano y Lovino Vargas son?" The man asked. Pinkie blinked several times before understanding what the man was trying to say.

"Yeah, they're here! I'm guessing you're Antonio?"

"Sí, señorita. My name is-" A loud crash echoed from inside the house. Pinkie and Antonio exchanged a glance before rushing to see what had happened.

The girl stifled a giggle as the newcomer helped the Italians to their feet. What had happened you might ask? Tomatoes. Tomatoes and pasta happened all over the floor.
Lovino tore his hand away from Antonio's grip as soon as he was standing.

"I don't need your help tomato bas-" he said before Antonio put a hand over his mouth.

"Lovi~" said Antonio in a singsong manner, "No swearing in front of a lady~" Lovino stared at Antonio, who had a slight grin on his face.

"Big brother Spain!" shouted Feliciano. He wrapped his arms around the Spaniard, "Yay! You made it!" While Pinkie tilted her head in confusion at what Feliciano had just said, Antonio laughed.

"It's good to see you, too, Italia! But you didn't tell me you had a guest in your company." Pinkie perked up.

"Eh? Oh! This is Diane! She's staying with us for a while!" Pinkie smiled and waved.

"It's nice to meet you, chica! You can call me Antonio."

"It's nice to meet you, too!" Pinkie said with a smile, "Feliciano told be about you. Speaking of which, why did he call you Spain?" All three men paled. Lovino hit his brother in the back of the head, causing the younger sibling to whimper.

"Idiota!" Lovino exclaimed in anger, "Dovete guardare quello che dici intorno a lei! Deficiente!"

"Romano!" Antonio counteracted in his native tongue, "Sea agradable a su hermano menor!"

"Vaffanculo, pomodoro bastardo!" Lovino stormed out out of the room.

"Romano?" Pinkie questioned, "Isn't his name Lovino?"

"Si..." said Antonio hesitantly, "When we were younger, I called him by his middle name whenever he got in trouble...which was often now that I think about it. " Pinkie laughed. Antonio had given her the image of a little Lovino inside of her head.

"I didn't mean to call you that, Antonio..." Feliciano apologized, "And, bella, remember what I told you about my nickname?" Balancing on her heels once again, Pinkie nodded. "It's the same for Big brother Antonio! He represents Spain, so I call him Spain sometimes!"

"Oh. It makes sense...I guess," said the blue-eyed girl. Feliciano and Antonio seemed to sigh in relief. Antonio turned to Feliciano.

"Hey, do you mind if I invite someone else along?" He asked. Feliciano shurgged.

"It's alright." Antonio nodded and left the room.

Italy and Diane were left alone in the kitchen and began to clean up the mess on the tile.

"Such a waste of good food," muttered Diane, "How did this happen, anyway?" Italy felt sweat roll down his face.

"I...slipped on a tomato that mio fratello dropped," he said quickly, "Lovino fell with me." It was a lie, but Diane seemed to believe it. The truth was that Italy had accidentally pulled Romano to the ground while he had the food in his hands. He don't know how it happened, but he was pretty sure the cause was their curls getting tangled together for some strange reason.

"So, how are we going to make Lovino smile? You said that Antonio being here would work." Italy shook his head as he stood up off the floor.

"It's not that simple, bella. Lovino is very different than I am, so we have to find some other way of getting him to smile. I thought Big brother S- I mean Antonio here would do it, but I was wrong."

As they finished, Diane wiped the sweat off her brow. She stood up and dusted off her hands.

"We can remake it, right?" She asked. Italy shook his head with a sad look in his eye. Diane pulled him to his feet.

"We used the last of the things we needed," Italy said with a sigh. The two stood in silence. That's when Romano and Spain walked back into the room.

"They can't come," said Spain, "But that's fine. We can all spend the day together, si?" Diane nodded with a happy look.

"If we only had some food left, than everything would be perfect!" Romano sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"The market is open...idiota," he said. Spain put an arm around the Southern Italian, which Romano immediately pushed off.

"Lovi, be nice to your brother," Spain told the younger.

"DON'T CALL ME LOVI!"

"Eheheh..." Italy laughed both awkwardly and nervously, "Why don't we all head out? It's a beautiful day." Both the Nations and human nodded.

"Awesome! I get to see more of Italy!" Diane said cheerfully before rushing out of the room. Romano gave Italy a sharp look, the same one he was always given when he did something wrong.

"Watch what you say," Romano said through gritted teeth, "We can't have any humans, other than our bosses, know about our secret!"

"He's right, Italia," added Spain, "It was close with your cover, but you have to be careful. Human names and current events only, understand?" Italy nodded and gave a mock salute.

"Si, Spain," said the Northern Italian, "Si, Romano."

"Are you guys coming or what?" Diane shouted, most likely from the doorway. All three countries exited the room.

Pinkie was a few feet ahead of everyone else as she and the three boys headed off to the marketplace. She was excited. Although she and Feliciano had walked around the waterway city several times before, Lovino hadn't gone with them. This was Pinkie's chance to get closer to him.

"Slow down, chica!" called out Antonio. Pinkie came to a stop and turned around to face the trio. "We can't go as fast as you. Maybe Feliciano and Lovino can when they're retreating, but not so much me!"

"Sorry," Pinkie said with a grin, "I'm just a little to excited." Lovino rolled his eyes.

"Excited for what? It's only the market. Not a big deal." Pinkie shrugged and started walking again as the boys caught up to her.

"I know. I've been to a market before. There's one back home every week!"

"Good for you." Pinkie frowned a little bit. Was Lovino always like this? If so, her task at hand would be a lot harder than she thought.

When the group arrived at the market, they split off in two. Lovino and Antonio went in one direction, with Pinkie Pie and Feliciano heading off in the other direction. After a long silence between the two, Pinkie spoke.

"Is Lovino always grumpy like that?" She asked. Feliciano nodded.

"It's a part of his personality, I guess," said Feliciano. "But don't worry, bella! We'll get my fratello to smile! I'm sure of it!" Pinkie smiled at Feliciano's enthusiasm. "I found the pasta!"

Italy and Diane finished up their half of the list quickly. They waited by the entrance for Spain and Romano. Diane tapped her feet along the cobblestone, humming to herself.

"So...what's so important about the meeting that you and your brother both have to go?" She asked. Italy perked up from what he was doing.

"I don't know, bella," he said as he looked over at the entrance.

"My name's Diane." Italy looked back over at Diane.

"What?"

"You called me Bella again. You know my name is Diane." The Italian felt a small laugh rise in his chest before he began laughing himself. "What's so funny?"

"Diane," said Italy, using the girl's name, "I didn't mean 'Bella' like the name." Diane tilted her head in confusion.

"Then why were you calling me bella?"

"In Italian, bella means beautiful." Diane began to blush heavily until she looked like a tomato. "What's wrong? I didn't upset you, did I? But you are very cute!"

"Thank you..." Diane said. She was obviously embarrassed by Italy's words. "I think you're very cute, too." It was Italy's turn for his face to heat up. He laughed shyly.

"Grazie, bella." Diane perked up as her blush faded. She smiled.

"You are. Even with that curl of yours. It makes me just wanna..." Diane reached out a hand. Italy took a step back.

"You don't want to pull my curl," Italy said quickly.

"Yes I do." She tried again, only to have Italy step out of the way. "Why? It's just a piece of hair. Just let me pull it!"

"Bella." Step. "I don't think-" Step. "You understand-" Step. "What happens-" Step. "When you-" Step. "Pull-" Step. "My curl!"

"Aw, come on! It's just a strand of hair! Lemme pull it!"

"No! BELLA!" Just a Italy took another step away, Romano and Spain entered the scene. Romano grabbed Diane by the hood of her sweatshirt, pulling her backwards. She stopped moving as she stumbled backward. Italy sighed. "Grazie, Fratello."

"What are you two doing?" Romano asked.

"Feliciano has a curl sticking up," explained Diane, "And I wanna pull it." Spain and Romano sweatdropped.

"I don't think that's a good idea, chica," Spain said nervously. "You see...it's uh..." Romano rolled his hazel eyes as he leaned over to Diane. He whispered something in her ear before the girl went bright red. She looked down at the ground in embarrassment.

"Sorry, Feliciano..." Italy put an arm around the girl's shoulder.

"Don't be upset, bella," he said, trying to cheer her up. "It isn't the first time it's happened!"

"What do you mean by 'this isn't the first time'?!" Romano said in a mixture of surprise and anger. Everyone started tp laugh as they began walking home. "FELICIANO VARGAS ANSWER ME!"

Even when they got back home, Feliciano didn't answer his brother's question. The rest of the day went by normally- although there were several failed attempts to get Lovino to crack a smile. Pinkie was almost out of ideas, but she still held onto her determination.

As night fell in, Pinkie gave it one last try. As everyone started getting ready for bed, she snuck downstairs and into the kitchen. While everything they had bought was used to make dinner, Pinkie saved one thing she knew Lovino would love. She climbed back up the stairs and walked over to one of the bedroom doors. She knocked on it.

"Lovino?" She asked, "Are you in there?"

"I'm busy, what do you want?" The Italian said from the other side of the door.

"I found something while I was cleaning up downstairs. I want to know if you want it." Pinkie heard the click of the lock. The door opened to reveal Lovino leaning in the doorway.

"Whatever it is, I don't-" Pinkie pulled the bright red fruit she had hidden out from behind her back. She held it out to Lovino.

"Are you sure? I found a tomato at the bottom of the bag. I know how much you love them, so I thought you might want it." Lovino took the fruit from Pinkie's hands and tossed it back and forth between his own.

"First off, I know you're lying to me. Don't even try to say you aren't." Pinkie laughed nervously.

"Yeah...I might be," she said. "I hid it so I could give it to you later." Lovino raised an eyebrow and stopped his tossing motions.

"Why on Earth would you do something like that?" asked the Italian. "You've been bothering me all day. Is this like a truce of something?" Pinkie's baby-blues widened as she shook her head rapidly, her brown curls hitting her face.

"No! I wasn't trying to bother you. I just wanted to make you smile. That's all."

"You were trying to...what? Why would you want to do something like that?"

"Because. It's what I love to do. I get this warm, fuzzy feeling whenever I make someone smile. You haven't grinned at all since I got here. I've made Feliciano smile and laugh a bunch of times. So, I thought why not give you a little smile."

"It's hard to make me even crack a smile," Lovino said as he started to play with the fruit again. "But, thanks for trying. Not many people notice me. It's all above my stupid brother."

"But he's your family...right?" Pinkie asked. Lovino nodded. "And you care about him, right?" Lovino nodded hesitantly. "I know you don't mean it when you call him stupid or something like that. But it's okay. There are people who notice and care about you."

"Oh really? Who are they?"

"Feliciano...Antonio...and me. We are friends, right?"

"I wouldn't say we're friends yet. Acquaintances is more like it." Pinkie smiled.

"That's still good in my book! We're almost friends then. And you can bet I'll be your friend soon enough!" Lovino looked down at the floor. Pinkie heard a familiar and quiet noise come from him. Her smile grew even wider as Lovino looked up with a smirk on his face.

"You keep on trying, ragazza. Good night." He went back inside his room and shut the door. Pinkie Pie silently cheered inside her head as she headed back to her room.

Italy yawned as he crawled into his bed. It was a long day, in his perspective anyway, and he needed to get his sleep for tomorrow's meeting.

Italy was about to fall asleep when the sound of a fight erupted from outside his door, followed by a sharp crack and a muffled scream. Italy began to panic, almost crying out his best friend's name. He sprang out of his bed and opened the door. The sight he saw almost made his jaw drop.

It was Diane, sitting on top of a black cloaked person. She held his arms to his back, pinning him to the ground. Her right foot was hanging limp, almost as if it wasn't connected. She had this leg thrown over her other knee. On either side of her were Romano, who had a gun in his hand, and Spain. All three Nations were looking at her with open mouths.

"You know that wasn't very nice," Diane said, "Sneaking up on me like that! You almost got me that time!" Diane looked away from the person and to the men around her. "Whoopsie! I didn't wake any of you, did I?"

"Ragazza," Romano said in surprise."What. The. Hell?" Italy helped Diane up as Spain kept the person down. As soon as Diane put her right foot on the ground, she stifled a painful scream. She pulled her leg back off of the floor and leaned onto Italy. The Nation understood what the crack was. During the fight, Diane's foot had become dislocated from the rest of her body.

"Do you know who it is, Lovino?" Spain asked. Romano bent down and looked at the man's face from under his hood. He shook his head.

"Never seen him before," Romano replied, standing back up. "Probably some idiota who decided to rob us."

"I know who he is." Everyone looked over at Diane. "You could say that we're old friends..."

"Like hell we're friends," said the person. "You know very well who I am Laugh-" The man face planted into the floor as Romano stepped on his head, shutting him up.

"I want you the-" Italy had to cover Diane's ears on the one word- "out of this house. Understood?"

"I have a mission, Sud Italia. Can't leave without her or those morons will have my head." Spain looked up at Romano, who stepped on the man again.

"I thought you said you didn't know him!" said the Spaniard.

"But I know you. All four of you. You all have your secrets. Isn't that right, Nord Italia? España? Sud Italia?" The man laughed darkly. "Laughter?" Diane dug her nails into Italy's arm. The Italian was confused for a moment, thinking that she had put weight on her injury again, but then he figured it out. The man had called all the Nations by their true names. He did the same for Diane, or Laughter.

"Why is he here?" Italy asked. Before Diane could even speak, the man cut in.

"Where you not listening? I have a mission here. God, Luciano was right. You are an idiot." Romano stepped on him again as the Nations paled.

"You can tell those insane bastards that the ragazza has nothing to do with their plans, whatever the hell they are," Romano said, "I want you to go tell them to-" Italy covered Diane's ears again.

"Whatever. You all are boring me anyway." A thick, red smoke filled the room. Everyone coughed as the black cloaked man disappeared into the night.

"Ragazza."

"No."

"Bella, please let us-"

"I said no, Feliciano." Italy sighed. Spain was busy informing some of the other Nations what had happened, while Romano and Italy were trying to pop Diane's dislocated limb back into place. However, the girl insisted that she was fine. But the moment Romano had touched her ankle, Diane pushed him away. She was in pain, but was hiding it.

"Bella..." Italy said as he sat down next to her, "It's going to hurt more if you don't let us fix it..."

"But I-" Diane said before biting her lip. She looked away from both of the Italies. The brothers exchanged glances.

"Ragazza. I will hold you down and pop it back it place myself," said Romano. Diane shook her head.

"No! I can't." Italy put a hand on the girl's shoulder, causing her to look at him with worried eyes.

"It will be fine. I promise. It won't get better unless mio fratello fixes it. Believe me, I know."

"I don't think you do..."

"No, I do. It hurts for a moment and then it's all over and you can use your arm- I mean foot again!" Romano and Diane both gave Italy a weird look.

"When did you dislocate your arm?!" Romano said in surprise. Italy laughed nervously.

"Well...uh...I fell down the stairs...in front of everyone..." This was true. During one of the first world meetings, Italy had tripped down the stairs at France's meeting hall, somehow dislocating his shoulder in the process. Germany had been the one to pop it back into place.

Diane pulled her foot in, and she sighed.

"Can you do it without taking my sock off?" She asked. Romano shook his head.

"No, I need to see what the hell I'm doing if you want me to fix it," he said. Diane pulled her foot away even further. It seemed like she was hiding something that she didn't want the boys to see. Now that Italy thought about, Diane hadn't shown the skin below her knees since she had arrived.

"But it's going to hurt..." Diane muttered.

"Of course it's going to hurt! I'm pushing this thing forcefully back into place!" Diane sighed sadly. Italy saw a few of her curls straighten out for a second before he put a hand on her arm.

"Don't be sad, bella!" He said, "Just laugh through the pain!"

"How do I do that? I can't think of anything..." said Diane. Italy thought briefly for a moment before coming to the answer.

"A happy memory. Your happiest one!" Diane leaned back in thought for a moment. Italy glanced down at his older brother, who was using the distraction to his advantage. Romano was slowly pulling the woolen object away from her skin.

"I don't know..." the girl said, "I mean...I have so many. What about you? What's your happiest memory?"

"Mine?" said Italy in surprise. Diane nodded. Only one memory came to Italy's mind. He grinned. "The day I became friends with my best friends. The day we signed the Tripart-" Romano hit his brother's knee. "I mean...uh...ignore that last part..."

"The day you became friends with your best friends?" Diane repeated. Italy nodded. "I have a memory like that too...Can you tell me about yours?" Italy nodded again.

"Well...I had already meet the first one. He's my best friend."

"More like a bas-" Italy covered Diane's ears on the last word and laughed awkwardly.

"Lovino doesn't like him...anyway, we all were in big trouble. So, my friend and I decided to become allies with the other one. That way we could help each other out. But, eventually we all grew close and became friends. Hey! Maybe you'll meet them! They're part of the U.N. too! They're Ger-" Romano whacked Italy again.

"Il nostro segreto, fratello," he said. Italy laughed awkwardly.

"Right..." he muttered before turning back to Diane. "How'd you meet your friends?" Diane leaned back onto the sofa. She hummed a bit before snapping her fingers.

"Oh yeah..." she said before smiling. "I was in a similar situation to you, I guess. We were in trouble. My one friend wanted to go and fix it alone, but we wouldn't let her. After a couple of dangerous tasks, we all made it to this castle where-" With a loud snap, Romano pushed Diane's foot back into place. She sat in silence for a moment with a look of pain of her face.

"OW!" She yelled. Diane went to pull her foot in closer, but Romano grabbed it.

"Is this what you were hiding, ragazza?" He said. "Fratello, come take a look." Italy walked around and knelt down beside his brother. The Southern Italian moved his hand from Diane's ankle to her foot. Embellished on her skin was a tattoo of sorts. It was two yellow balloons with a blue one in the middle.
Diane pulled her foot out of Romano's hold and took the sock from him. She quickly pulled it back on.

"I didn't want you to see it..." she said while straightening up. "I wasn't supposed to show anyone..."

"It's just a mark!" said Italy as he sat back down next to Diane. "Don't worry about, mia amica! We won't tell anyone! Besides, I think its cute! Not to mention, it matches your personality." Diane smiled.

The three were interrupted when someone cleared their throat. Turning, they saw Spain behind them.

"I called Ame-" he said before realizing that Diane was still in the room. "I mean...I called Alfred and he said that he and a few other na- I mean, representatives have had similar situation earlier."

"What else did he say?" asked Romano, standing up.

"I asked him what we should do about it. He told me that two of them and himself were bringing their guests with them. He suggested we do the same."

"Alfred?" Diane questioned, "Who's Alfred?"

"Alfred is the American Representative," explained Italy, "He was the one who changed the meeting in the first place." Diane nodded.

"Why would we bring her with us?" Romano said, "She's not even a...'representative.'"

"He knew who she was," answered Spain. "He was going after her, right? Not to mention he also called her...what was it?"

"Laughter," said Diane.

"Gracias. Either way, if this man is involved with...the..." Spain shot a quick look at Diane. "...those people, it would be far safer to have the chica with us than here." Romano groaned and started for the stairs.

"Fine," he said, "I'll get the other plane ticket. Buonanotte."

"We all should be getting to sleep," Spain yawned. "Buenos Noches!" Spain turned and headed for his room.

"Buonanotte, fratello," said Italy, "Buonanotte, Antonio." Diane and Italy both stood and headed for the second floor.

"Hey, Feliciano?" Diane asked, "What does 'amica' mean?" Italy looked back at Diane before realizing that he had called her such earlier. He smiled.

"It's the feminine version of 'amico'," the Italian explained, "In my language, 'amico' translates into 'friend.'"

"I'm your friend?" Italy nodded.

"Si, since we met. We are friends, right?" Diane grinned and nodded quickly. She stuck out her hand, extending her smallest finger. Italy did the same, and the two interlocked their fingers.

"Friends," Diane giggled before attacking Italy in a hug, "I love making a new friend." Italy laughed.

"So do I, bella." The two climbed the stairs and headed to their separate bedrooms.

"Buonanotte, bella!" said Italy as he went in his own room. Before he shut the door, he heard someone answer him back.

"Buonanotte, Feliciano."

A friendship born of happiness. The link between the Spirit of Laughter and the Republic of North Italy has been made.