The day he was looking the least forward to had finally arrived. They all knew none of these issues were to be discussed outside of the building; this was their only chance to talk freely.
He was far more than nervous when they reached the front door to the facility; in fact he was genuinely terrified. But he had to go forward.
For Italy.
Germany looked to his sides, seeing both his supportive older brother and his strangely calm ally keeping by his side for this meeting. Of course behind them were other men sent from their government, just in case things got out of hand. With a deep breath, Germany looked forward and finally entered through the double doors, down the hall and into the large conference room.
A good portion of the Allies had all ready arrived to the room, although America and Russia were missing still. England, China and France sat in a row together, surrounded by several empty chairs that went around the large round table. Of course, China sat between England and France, but currently had his arms folded with his head resting on them to try to rest up before the stressful meeting.
There was initially silence as the three of them walked into the room, knowing that eyes were on them at that moment. Germany didn't hesitate to take one of the seats in the middle, wanting to be able to hear and see everyone for this.
Prussia plopped down on his seat stretching his arms upward and let out a comically loud yawn as he did so, finally breaking the silence around them,
"Moooornin' everybody! What's with the stale atmosphere in here, geeeez!" he outright exclaimed, practically making Germany look away from him in almost embarrassment of snapping the tension in half and replacing it with an awkward cheeriness.
France softly smiled as seeing his older comrade being in such a good mood, despite the circumstance of their meeting. "Good to see you're in good spirits, mon ami." He commented, this getting a large toothy grin as a reply from Prussia. He looked over to the other two quiet Axis, hesitating a moment before speaking up, "and how are you two this morning?"
Germany hesitated at being addressed, but he turned towards to other and figured it'd be best to try to keep this as civil as possible. "I-"
"Very well, thank you, and how are you doing on this day, France-san?"
The blonde jumped very slightly as he was suddenly interrupted by Japan, looking over to him.
The small Asian nation looked towards the wall behind France, looking like he was honestly zoning out even though he gave out such a detailed answer. Japan scratched lightly at the black opera gloves covering up his arms as he continued to just stare, but slowly when he stopped messing with his glove he seemed to just melt a little in his seat with a soft calm smile on his face.
"Oh well, uh, I am well… as well," France said, almost caught off guard by the question.
Germany frowned a little at seeing Japan's still oddly calm state, thinking that really he was either being very strong and taking all of this business in stride, or he was very heavily faking it. At this point he couldn't determine which. He looked back to France, however, and gave a small nod to gesture getting his attention.
"And I am all right. Where are the other two?" he asked, curious if some of them were going to show up or not, though the meetings start time was still a bit away.
"They'll be here soon," England said, straightening up in his seat a little before looking to the clock, "Russia said he had to go get something for the meeting, and America probably over slept."
"Oi, that's pretty mean to say," Prussia noted, pursing his lips lightly, but it turned into a small chuckle as England gave a shrug that indicated that America had done that a few times all ready. England looked at the three of them before looking to one of the empty seats next to them, raising an eyebrow,
"And how about you? Where's the rest of your group?"
"You know damn well where he is." Germany practically snapped back at him with a hint of unneeded anger, making England raise up his hands in defense. Prussia set a hand on Germany's shoulder, rubbing it slightly in trying to have him calm down. Japan looked up to him as well, though paused as his ears perked and quickly shifted his gaze upwards, as if he was trying to hear something far away.
"No need to jump down my throat," England remarked, lowering his hands as he looked back over to that empty chair again, "I didn't mean Italy."
Germany blinked at this, the three of them instinctually looking at the empty seats next to them before to each other curiously. Who were they missing? He furrowed his brow in thought, knowing that the obvious one was gone, and they knew it too. So who….
"Ah, sorry I'm late, comrades!"
The inhabitants of the table turned to look to the door, a lot of them having confused looks on their faces as Russia came into the room, but having a line of other nations behind him.
"Russia, what is the meaning of this?" England quickly asked, looking over as Russia sat next to him.
The Russian gave a sweet grin to him before he ushered the others to sit down, and there was surely enough seats to spare. "Ah, seeing how this meeting was important, or I assume it is, I decided to bring the rest of my union with me!" He softly chuckled before he turned towards his wards, lifting an arm to gesture their presence, "Here we have our little Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia! And over there, there are my sisters, Ukraine and Belarus! Surely you must remember them!"
"H-H-Hello."
"Good morning, everyone."
"Hmph."
England clicked his tongue before rolling his eyes, "I suppose that's fine. The more people to help the better, I suppose."
"Ah! Those!"
"Those?" Germany looked over to Japan, curiously raising an eyebrow as he noticed that the Asian nation was looking towards Ukraine.
"Mm, that was the drumming I heard earlier. Ah, very good. For a moment there I thought there was something wrong with my hearing." Ukraine blinked at this and lightly blushed, quickly glancing down at her shit to make sure the button on her bust was still intact.
Germany sighed lightly, turning his attention back forward to look towards everyone. Now all that was left was America. But… what was that other person England was talking about? He had a feeling that there was something they were forgetting, something important to this case… Something related to Italy…
Then suddenly, at once, it clicked.
Prussia and Japan jumped as suddenly Germany let out a horrified gasp, which he quickly silenced by covering his mouth. "Huh?! What is it, West?!" Prussia quickly asked, startled and confused by the others sudden reaction.
"Mein Gott, w-we forgot someone!" Germany spoke loudly behind his mouth, fearing that he would be too loud to contain this sudden epiphany.
Prussia raised an eyebrow in confusion while Japan tilted his head curiously, who could have they forgotten that would suddenly make Germany look so terrified. "who?"
"Hey poTATO BASTARD!"
Once, more everyone turned towards to the doorway, this time with a bit of a jump as the doors were suddenly slammed open, this startling China awake, to reveal the missing member of the Axis.
Italy's brother, Romano.
"Oh shit!" Prussia cursed, now cupping his own mouth in the realization that in the entire time they had returned, none of them had told Romano about what happened.
Romano stepped forward so the doors could close behind him, his intense raging glare centering on the blonde German not too far away from him. He trembled vigorously in the sheer amount of emotions being contained in his small body.
"How… how f-f-fucking dare you…. How dare you… y-you piECE OF SHIT!" He screeched at him, not even caring about his chin trembling horribly or that the tears he was previously holding in suddenly sprang forward and rolled down his cheeks out of his dramatic outburst.
"Hey!" Prussia quickly yelled, turning towards him more, not going to tolerate him bad mouthing his baby brother. "You have no clue what he has gone through! Shut up and sit down!"
"What he has gone through?! That f-fucking murderer killed and ate Veneziano?! What did you put him through?! Y-You fucking m-monster!"
Romano's words cut through whatever confidence Germany had left at that moment, the German's eyes widening and slowly becoming shiny as he felt his muscles quiver in both a mixture of gut wrenching shame and also fear. He opened his mouth to say something, anything to defend himself. But he shut it as suddenly Prussia slammed his hands on the table,
"No one talks to West like that! You wanna go!?"
The Italian didn't hesitate for a moment before snatching a switchblade out of his pocket and extending it with a flick of his wrist.
"I-I'll fucking gut you like the pig you are… I'll make you suffer just as he suffered!"
"All right, let's go, motherfucker!"
Some of the nations exclaimed in surprise as suddenly Prussia stood up and practically sprang outwards to confront Romano, the other not hesitate to charge at him either. Prussia however used this reckless charging to his advantage and made sure to stay out of Romano's reach as the other try to slice at him with the knife.
Bringing his leg back, he turned on his heel with the momentum from running at him to quickly round house kick the knife right out of his hand, making it slide somewhere under the table. But it was quickly discarded as without a knife, Romano's hands curled into fists and instead tried to swing at Prussia. But once more, his blind behavior worked to the Prussians favor, being able to dodge most of the hits but soon able to grab both of the fists to make them at a deadlock.
The other nations watched this incredulously, some of them not even entirely sure what just happened. Germany kept back in his seat, not even fully sure what he should be doing, wanting to look away from the siblings of the murderer and the victim fighting each other for their brothers honor. But he just couldn't…
"Prussia-chan! I will help you!" Japan exclaimed, getting out of his chair to try to go over to help, but a single step away from his chair, his knees seemed to wobble and collapse right then, making him fall straight to the ground with a thud and a grunt.
"Tch! Japan!" Prussia called out, having looked back to see what the commotion was about, only to mainly see Japan fall to the ground and Germany start to help him back into his chair. At seeing the albino distracted however, the crying Italian gave a smirk at finally seeing an advantage.
Once Japan was put back in his place, Germany looked back over to the fighting two, only to notice while Prussia was looking away, Romano was pulling his head back. "B-Bruder! Look out!"
"Huh?!" Prussia quickly looked back to Romano at this, only to suddenly be head butted straight in the forehead. "Gah!" He cried out, his grip dropping instantly as right then all he could see was spots and stars. The Prussian dropped to his knees and held his head, trying to get his vision back and stop the intense pounding pain in his head, but he was defenseless as Romano suddenly sprinted past him over towards Germany's chair.
"I'LL MAKE YOU SUFFER AS HE SUFFERED!"
Germany didn't even have time to fully gasp at the other lunging at him, but right before Romano's hands met Germany's throat, suddenly Romano was tackled by the falling Japan.
"Got you!"
"Tch! Get offa me, you sick fuck!" Romano yelled, trying to push off the smaller male, but with the other being dead weight it was a hard task to do.
"Security!" Germany finally managed to yell, standing up to step aware from the two nations on the floor. Within a few moments, some of the men waiting outside ran inside and quickly confiscated Romano, gripping him from his arms.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME YOU SONS OF BITCHES! YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" Romano yelled at the top of his lungs as he tried to wiggle out of their grip, but it was no use. It wasn't long before they started to drag him out of the room, planning on throwing him out of the facility.
"THIS ISN'T THE END, POTATO BASTARD! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU! I WILL TEAR OUT YOUR STILL BEATING HEART AND EAT IT IN FRONT OF YOU! I SWEAR THIS TO GOD! I WILL KIILLLL YOOOOU! KIIIILLLLL YOOOOOUUUUU!"
Romano's screaming was heard throughout the rest of the building, soon his exclamations of murder turning into heated Italian. And right before the slams of the front door were heard, they could've sworn they heard him flat out sobbing.
The room was drenched in silence once more, two of the Axis now on the floor, one in pain and one just simply unable to get up for whatever reason, and the third falling back in his chair, horribly pale and trembling from what just happened.
The rest of the Allies looked at each other, but soon England murmured, "Why didn't we call security in the first place?"
"That was too much fun to watch," Russia commented quietly, giving a small smile as he knew everyone else felt the same way too even though they didn't want to admit it.
"Yoooo! The hero's here! Sorry bout being late, I overslept! Ha ha ha ha! I- whoa."
America paused as he entered through the door, feeling a horrible sense of dread and confusion bombard him right when he came in. Usually he wasn't able to feel the atmosphere, but this time it was way too obvious not to feel it.
"Uhm… am I like, interrupting something?"
England straightened up at America arriving, but he cleared his throat in an attempt to clear the mood just a bit, "oh no, not really. But, I think we're going to postpone this a couple of hours so those three can compose themselves."
Germany's ears perked and he looked over to him at this, surprised that he suggested this. But he gave a subtle thankful smile, very grateful that he understood that this was not the best time to discuss things. He pushed himself out of his seat, went over to Japan and Prussia's sides and helped them get up and walk out of the room, knowing they probably needed to find a quiet place to go and rest for a while.
"Aaaah man! I could've slept in more? God dammit!" America exclaimed, huffing as he went to go take a random seat around the table.
England rolled his eyes before he leaned back in his seat, contemplating about what they could do with this break. His thoughts were interrupted however, as he felt a gentle nudge to his shoulder. He looked up, frowning to see France next to his seat. "What?"
"Angleterre, we may have a problem," France whispered quietly, leaning down a bit so he could talk privately with him.
England's bushy brows rose a little at the serious quiet tone, leaning up a bit to try to listen better, "what is it? What's wrong?"
"That knife Romano was using, I can't find it." France stated, this making the other tilt his head in confusion and also look under the table. "I saw it slide under here, but it's not here anymore." The two of them took another glance under the table and around the near area, but there was indeed no knife.
They looked to the rest of the allies around them, not even having to say anything to agree that one of them took the knife, and they just hoped that they wouldn't do anything reckless with it.