Italy didn't know how long it was until he had dozed off next to Germany, still gripping the other's hand as tight as he could. He stirred gently as he heard some heavy steps coming down the stairs. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open and he weakly looked up, seeing his brother walk around him and pressing his hand against Germany's throat.

"…. One…. Two… three, yup, alive. Bout fucking time, Jesus."

Italy tilted his head gently, still processing what exactly was happening. He pushed himself onto his feet, blinking as he saw a darkened line down Germany's torso. His body must have healed during the time they were out. How long were they even out? He rubbed his eyes briefly before straightening up, seeing Romano smack Germany's face rather harshly.

"Oi, wake up potato bastard. Time for breakfast."

It took a few smacks before Germany groaned softly, peeling his eyes open and just frowning up at the living Italian. Though he did have one eyebrow raised though, as if not really having expected needing to be actually fed. But he didn't exactly want to jinx it either.

"… Romano," Italy finally spoke up, squeezing Germany's hand gently as a sign he was still there, smiling only a little as he felt Germany tightly squeeze back. "Please, it… it isn't Germany's fault what happened to me. Can't you… can't you just let it go? I'll come back… I'll come back."

Germany gave a side glance to Italy, biting his dry lip gently before looking back to Romano.

"Can't you just let this go? Italy's going to be coming back once we find him. It's not my—"

"It's ALL your fucking fault! Don't try to just play fucking cute and talk your way out of this!" Romano surprisingly grinned despite yelling down at the German in a harsh tone. He lifted his hand to showcase the very kitchen knife from last night, twirling it in his fingers with precise precision. "Now just be a good boy and hold still, I feel like having some German sausages to go with my eggs this morning~"

"W-wait, what?! Again with this?! Romano! What's gotten into—"

"hnNNNGGHHH"

Italy yelped as without much warning, Romano stuck the tip of the knife as the base of Germany's neck and slid it down the dark scar that had formed over night, red being easily revealed under the cut. With a few more flicks of the wrist, Germany's skin was flipped back once more to reveal the slowly functioning organs, Germany's body quivering at the stress of the reoccurring pain from the day before.

"R-Romano, please!" Italy cried out, not helping but to fall back down on his knees, shutting his eyes as he just wasn't able to take staring at Germany being vivisected again! "Please! Please stop! Fratello!"

"Let's see~ This one, and this one, ooh and this one would taste nicely! Fucking fuck, get off the strand- ah yea there we go. Fuck yea!"

Italy quivered in his crouched position, hiccupping a small sob as he felt Germany hold onto his hand for dear life. Why did this have to happen to him? If only he was living he could stop him!

"I'm.. I'm so sorry Germany… I'm so useless…"

"…N… N-Not…"

Italy's ears perked, hearing Germany's quiet strained voice, which made both Italy and Romano stop what they were doing to look at him. Romano tilted his head, lightly squeezing the kidney and spleen in his hands idly as he stared to the German.

"The fuck you just say, bastard?"

Germany opened up one of his eyes, previously having squeezed them tight to try to keep himself back from outright yelling. He stared up at the looming Italian for a moment, faltering a moment to think about what to actually say before just finally outright saying,

"…Not useless… It'll be okay… d.. don't cry… I'll be okay…"

Italy's eyes widened, realized he was risking speaking out being tortured… to try to calm him down. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he smiled wide, seeing Germany look at him at his peripheral vision and smile back at him. Germany truly was the strongest, not even he would be able to withstand torture like this and still smile.

"Oh Germany… it will be okay! I—"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP."

Even before Italy was able to finish his sentence, Romano had pulled out his knife from inside Germany's body to slice it against Germany's cheek, the force causing his head to whip over to look away from where Italy was. Italy's smile fell as he quietly gasped, unable but help watch as the giant gash started to bleed out profusely and overflow Germany's cheek. Romano smirked before pushing the tip of the knife into Germany's neck, not actually breaking the skin but more as a warning.

"The fuck do you have to smile about, huh? You don't deserve to smile, you fucking murderer. Nothing will be okay. You are the most useless piece of shit ever to walk the Earth, how fucking dare you suggest otherwise. You are the worst thing to ever happen to anyone and everyone who has ever had the misfortune to meet you. Especially Italy. The only upside of him being dead is that now he can finally be away from you. Don't ever fucking forget that."

Germany gasped as he tried to suddenly deal with the gash in his face, blood flooding into his mouth and making him unable to even think about talking back. At being having no response back, Romano's smile fell before he pulled back the knife and stood up straight, holding the handle of the knife tightly and holding it to his side.

"Never ever forget it."

Italy stared at the nation in disbelief of what was happening before him. He tensed as Germany slowly brought his head back up to stare up at the ceiling, seeing tears brimming at the edge of his short eyelashes.

Most useless piece of shit to ever walk the Earth…

Worst thing to happen to anyone who met him…

Upside of his death was being away from him….

Italy shook terribly, unable to help leaning forward and setting his head against Germany's hand. This wasn't true…. This wasn't true… Not at all…

"Whaaat, you gonna cryyy about it?~ How fucking pathetic."

"SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH."

POP.

Romano yelped as suddenly the light bulb in the lamp nearby suddenly flickered for a moment only to explode. He took his hand off of the knife to turn around to it, raising an eyebrow at the strange occurrence. Meh, maybe it was old?

Italy stared at the broken light bulb however, only not with confusion but with a glimmer of hope. He squeezed his eyes shut as he continued to tremble with an almost unfathomable amount of anger and pain brewing inside, wanting release.

"Romano… you're lying… you're the pathetic one…"

"Wha… What the fuck?!"

Romano took a few steps away from his barely living corpse to look up to the light bulbs that were installed into the ceiling that began to glow, knowing he hadn't touched the light switch to turn them on at all. What the hell was causing this?!

"Is this some kind of game, bastard?! What are you up to?!

Germany looked up to the lights as well, even in his haze of pain and lightheadedness from blood loss, he knew exactly what was going on.

"This is aLL YOUR FAULT!"

Romano this time gave a short shriek as all the light bulbs simultaneously grew bright and went out at the same time. Now they were just in complete darkness aside from the dim amount of sunlight from the door at the top of the stairs.

"W-what the f-fuck…"

Germany turned his head away from the slowly panicking Romano to look over to Italy, seeing his head bowed and eyes closed tightly. Gently, he rubbed his thumb against Italy's curled hands, getting the other's attention. He weakly smiled as their eye contact was met, and began to chuckle. Italy blinked as well, but smiled as well. Maybe he wasn't as useless after all…

"The fuck are you laughing about?! You really are behind this!"

Italy looked up at seeing Romano having turned back to look at Germany, eyes wide with both a mixture of fear, confusion and rage. He stood up to his full height, gently taking his hands away from Germany so he could face Romano fully as a shield.

"You've gotten your revenge, I won't let you hurt him any longer." He said, though he knew fully well Romano couldn't hear him. He wasn't going to be a useless burden to his best friend any longer!

"You son of a bitch! I'll cut out that annoying laugh from your throat! Just motherfucking DIE!"

Romano quickly raised up his knife, having the intent to finish off the German and sprinted forward. Italy took a few deep breaths before Italy took a step forward himself, raising a hand up against the knife that began to swing down to stab against the blonde.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

With just the very tip of the blade hitting into Italy's hand, suddenly all of Romano's energy forward redirected through the knife to hit straight out of his hand and to even blast the Italian back several feet to hit the wall on the other side of the room.

Romano gasped heavily as the wind was knocked out of him, looking at his now empty hands before staring up into the darkness he was suddenly sent into. He just swore he heard something… No… someone…

Italy stared at his brother for only a moment before turning around and undoing Germany's binds on his hands and ankles. Without even hesitating for a moment before unbuttoning his own shirt to show his bandaging, gently taking the tip of it from where it was secured before and slipping it off, unraveling his protection from his own gaping hole in his body from months past. Germany respectfully closed his eyes as the other did this. Italy leaned over and put the organs that Romano dropped back into Germany's insides and used the ghostly bandage to bind up with was left hanging open in his body so it could stay together.

"Come on, Germany… come on…"

Italy buttoned up his shirt once more before gently putting his arm around him under Germany's own arms, gently helping him to sit up and to stand up, which if the Italian wasn't helping it would be obvious he'd be immobile pretty fast.

Germany stared over at Romano, Italy looking also as they saw Romano still curled up in his spot just staring, now in just horror of Germany being suddenly freed and able to move. The blonde looked down to the discarded knife besides him and barely was able to kneel down to pick it up and stand back up.

With Italy's help, Germany shuffled over to the other Italian, now just looming over the trembling Romano with a knife in his hand. Italy gently nudged Germany, frowning in worrying but hoping the German wasn't going do what he thought he was going to do. Romano took in a shaky breath, looking into the almost dead eyes of the German before shakily speaking,

"V…. Veneziano?..."

Italy perked at his name being called by Romano, though from the others gaze he knew he wasn't able to see him. But.. did he actually hear him after all?

Germany stared him down for a bit longer before tossing the knife at Romano, the handle hitting him right on the head. Romano stared down at the knife as it toppled into his lap before looking up to Germany in almost a panicked stare, almost if asking if he was caught being seen using it.

Without another word, Italy gently motioned Germany away, the both of them turning and making their way out of the down stairs and into the bright light of day. Italy looked around, seeing the basket of tomatoes from the day before being spilled over and a lot of them being splattered on the ground or in the general area. So that's what Romano was covered in, no doubt to hide the blood from before.

"Ah, this way, Germany." Italy murmured softly, directing the slowly fading nation away into what was once his own room, closing the door behind them. With one more boost of energy, they made it over so Germany could lie on his bed, it still being neatly made from not being laid in for months. Italy let the other lay there for a moment before looking to the phone on the nightstand. Heh, he always knew having a phone nearby would come in handy.

"Stay awake just a little longer, Germany. We're going to get you some help."

Gently taking Germany's hand, he moved it over so he could knock the phone off the receiver, moving it so it could be next to the others ear before back over to the phone so he could use his fingers to type in the certain numbers. Once the phone started to ring, Italy moved to Germany's side, making sure the phone kept upright to lean against his ear and mouth.

"Hello?"

"…B… Bruder?..."

"WEST!? Where the fuck are you, we've been looking for you all night!"

"Not… much time left… Romano's house… quick…"

"Not much—okay okay! I'm leaving right now! Don't fucking die on me, West!

With a simple click from the other line, Italy used Germany's hand to put the phone back on the receiver before just resting beside him on the bed, closing his eyes as he was just glad they were out of there and that he was going to be rescued soon.

"..Blood?... Okay?..."

"I don't mind if you're bleeding on my bed, we'll just wash it out later."

"Mmn… Romano?..."

Italy lifted his head slightly to look at the door as he mentioned this, pursing his lips for a moment before laying back down, resting his head on Germany's shoulder.

"No, I don't think he'll come after us. We'll be okay."

The both of them remained quiet for a while, both just being patient and just content with being in the comfort of a real bed and in the light of day. Italy kept track of the other's breathing however, hoping he could at least stay awake long enough for Prussia to arrive. He lightly jumped though, felt a heavy hand gently set on top of his head.

"Good… good job… not useless… I'm… proud…"

Italy looked up at Germany as he murmured the praise, his chin trembling very lightly in just happiness as he realized that yes, he actually wasn't useless, and even stood up to his brother to save Germany.

"Thank you, Captain."

The both of them smiled at each other for a brief moment before closing their eyes. Italy resituated himself to where he was, being more than content with Germany's hand resting on his head for now. He was more than aware once he went to sleep, the hand would phase through and look just like it was set on his shoulder. Even if short lived, he was more than happy to be there.

He wasn't useless after all…

Last they both remembered before losing consciousness, was hearing the door slam open and a very worried Prussia screaming his brother's name.