Chapter 15: Italy and Romano
Feliciano and Romano were never close. Romano was too jealous, and Feliciano was too spacey to realize how his brother felt .Romano was jealous of how much Feliciano got noticed and how many friends he had. Feliciano was secretly jealous of the relationship that Romano had with Antonio, and how no one ever tried to take advantage of Romano.
It was when the unification happened that they finally got close to each other. When they were kids, they would go years without seeing each other. Now the country was unified and instead of staying with others they stayed with others. It was awkward at first, but then they began to notice how each other acted and that the really had a lot in common.
After years of staying together they knew almost everything about each other. Feliciano was the only person that could get Romano to open up, and Romano always knew how to get Feliciano to feel better when he got sad. They would help each other ditch training and avoid the people that they hated.
The unification was nice while it lasted. But then the war came. It was bloodier than they thought that it would be and it took more of a toll on the brothers than either of them thought was possible. They had to make allies, and of course Romano didn't want anyone getting close to his little brother. No one was going to take Feliciano away from him again.
Despite his best efforts though Feliciano began to get closer and closer to that German bastard Ludwig. Feliciano started spending more and more time away from Romano. Romano found himself coming home to an empty house almost every night. Don't get him wrong, Romano wanted Feliciano to have friends, but it was like Feliciano was getting taken away from him all over, but just painfully slow. Romano didn't want to be alone every night, wondering why no one loved him.
When World War II came, Feliciano was in even worse shape than ever. Romano was no better, but Feliciano had to deal with the guilt of having to leave his allies in the time of their need. Feliciano would wake up crying, claiming he was sorry.
It was selfish but Romano was happy to have his brother back.
The first thing that Feliciano did when he was better though was go and visit Ludwig. That day something really seemed to click in Romano's head. Feliciano loved Ludwig, and in a way he was standing in the way of that. Romano cried alone in his room, realizing that he had just lost his brother to someone else.
When he was done he packed up as much as he could, leaving a note for Feliciano when he got home. With his heart still breaking Romano went to go and stay with Antonio, confident that at least Antonio could help his for a little bit.
Feliciano came home not five minutes after Romano had left. The first thing that he noticed was how cold the house seemed to be, as if there was a life missing from it. Feliciano moved through the house quickly, wanting to tell his brother about the amazing day that he had with Ludwig. Every room he went to he would flick the light on only to find an empty room. The only place left was Romano's bedroom. Romano had always given Feliciano specific instructions not to go in there.
"Roma?" Feli called. He turned on the lights to Romano's bedroom. There was nothing in the room, it was just empty.
"Ve~ Romano?" Even though the room was empty, it was as if Feliciano was expecting Romano to pop out of the closet. Nothing happened though. It suddenly seemed to dawn on Feliciano what had just happened, who Romano wasn't there. A part of him always knew that Romano was going to leave but he had wished that they had had more time to spend together.
After a couple of minutes in Romano's now empty room, Feliciano pulled out his cell phone.
"Ludwig? Can I come stay with you for a while? I don't want to be alone." Feli said into the phone. A sigh came out from the other end.
"Ja you can stay here."
"Ve~ Grazie!" Feli said before he hung up and sent a text to his brother.
Ti amo.
Ti amo troppo.