When Sicily Met the Boys

A small little flashback on how Rosaria met the pair she came to know as her elder brothers. As you can see, one of them didn't exactly go as smoothly as you would hope...

A long time ago...

A small boy sat by the window of his home. It was raining. The young boy, who was known as Italy Veneziano, was watching the rain plummet to the earth. It was peaceful and quiet. Italy stuck out his hand in hope of catching some of them. He was a curious little boy.

Italy pulled his hand back in when the cold water hit it. He laughed a little. The cold water didn't matter. What mattered was his grandfather was coming home today. Italy hated it when he left. He would be alone. People would come and check up on the little child every now and then, but it wasn't them. Italy loved spending time with his grandfather. And that's who he wanted to be with. And so now, Italy was waiting for him to come back.

As if on cue, Italy spotted a figure in the distance. Coming closer, he saw it was a man, using a red cape to shield himself from the rain. A large smile stretched across Italy's face.

"Nonno Roma!" he called out with delight, waving a hand frantically. Rome gave a little smile, but didn't wave back. He walked into the home. Italy immediately greeted him by wrapping his arms around his grandfather's legs. Rome ran a hand through the child's hair.

"Hello, Italy," said the Empire. Italy smiled and laughed. He looked up at his grandfather with a curious look. Rome usually greeted his grandson differently when he arrived home. Why was today different?

"Are you alright, Nonno?" asked the young child. "You're acting different." Rome seemed to hesitate a little bit.

"I'm fine, Italia. I just don't know how to tell you."

"Tell me what?" Rome knelt down to Italy's eye level. His cape was covering one of his arms. Italy was beginning to worry. "Ve, you didn't get hurt, did you?!" Rome shook his head.

"Nothing like that. Let me show you." The man moved the fabric aside to reveal what he was holding. Italy's eyes widened a little. In his grandfather's arms was a little girl. She was asleep and covered in filth.

"Who is she?" Italy asked. His eyes brightened. "Is she like us?"

"Yes."

"Who is she?" Italy repeated. Rome stood up, still holding onto the child.

"Syra-" Rome started to say, only to cut himself off. "Sicilia. Her name is Sicily. She's your sister."

"Sister...?" Italy tilted his head out of confusion. Sister? That word didn't belong in his vocabulary. Rome walked off with the child in hand. Italy followed after him. "What's a... sister?" Rome laughed.

"Italia," he began to explain, "A sister is like a brother. Only they're a girl, like Sicilia."

"Oh."

"You wait here. I have to get your sister cleaned up a bit." Italy nodded and went back to the window, waiting to officially meet his new sister.

The girl now named Sicily awoke with a start when she found herself wet with water. She was wet and really didn't like it. Long story short, she put up a small fight against getting herself cleaned. By the time she was done, the floor was far wetter than her.

Sicily looked at her image in the water. Her hair wasn't matted anymore. It was bright, soft and fell down in soft waves down her face and back. Well, except that one to the right. The man who she was now to call her grandfather gave her different clothes than what she had on before. She looked less Grecian than she had before.

Rome sent Sicily off afterwards. The young child was curious of her new surroundings. Sicily's first task was to try and navigate her way around.

She walked around for a few minutes until she saw someone. They were standing at the window, and Sicily couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl.

The young girl hid behind a wall as she watched the child. They had auburn hair like hers. They were dressed in a similar fashion as well. While they looked fairly innocent and harmless, Sicily was still afraid to approach them.

Sicily didn't need to do anything. The child turned around on their own. Sicily froze when they smiled. The child waved at her. However, she still remained as a statue. The child tilted their head in confusion. They walked over to Sicily. From this point of view, Sicily could tell that they were at least two years older than her. She balled up her hands against her chest.

"Are you alright?" They asked. The child's voice sounded like a girl's. Sicily nodded slowly.

"Y-Yes..." she stuttered. "I'm fine..." She took a small step back.

"You don't have to be scared!" Could they actually tell about that? "I'm Italy! Italy Veneziano!" Italy smiled, most likely trying to calm her down.

"Sicily..." the girl said, remembering the name she was given. She stared at the child before her. "Who are you...?"

"My name is Italy! I'm your big brother! You're my sister!" Sicily blinked for a second. The child was a boy. Okay…?

"You're my... brother?" She repeated, letting the words lay inside of her mind. Italy nodded. "What do brothers do?" The boy shrugged.

"I don't know. But I'm sure they act like big brother France, and that other brother I don't know cause I haven't met him yet." Sicily looked up at Italy.

"I have more than one brother?"

"Yes." Sicily smiled a bit. Italy took her hand. "Do you want to watch the rain with me?" Unsure of what to answer, Sicily let Italy drag her to the window. With a little help from her new brother, Sicily managed to look out of it. She rested her head on his shoulder. Later on, the pair came to fall asleep at the window. And Sicily learned that having a brother might not be so bad.

A long time ago… but not as long ago as before…

A little girl sat on top of a hill, her face buried in her knees. She looked down at the scene below. The other countries were talking with each other. Socializing with each other. And where was Sicily? On top of a hill. Alone. It's not like she didn't want to be with the others, she did. She was just a shy little girl.

Sicily sat there day in and day out, just wondering how to approach the others. This had been… what? Her fiftieth day trying to figure this out? And yet, she still hadn't. Sicily stretched her legs out, and placed her hands firmly on the ground. Maybe this was the day she would go out and talk to someone… or maybe not. Sicily was scared to death of talking to the others. One thing only danced across her mind when she thought of talking to the countries. Rejection. What if they hated her? What if they rejected her? They would tell her she wasn't a country. That she was too small to be.

Sicily stood up. No. This was the day she was going to be brave. She took a breath and went to move forward. She would have done so if someone hadn't called out to her. Sicily quickly turned around to see someone about five years older than her standing behind her. She gave out a little yelp of surprise. The child before her was a young boy, not that much older than her. He had brown hair that had a wild curl resting to the right. His eyes were a bright hazel.

"What are you doing up here?" said the boy. Sicily stuttered to find the words to say.

"I-I-I'm… uh…" Sicily stuttered out, brushing her bangs behind her ear. "I am… uh…"

"Can't you speak right at all?" The girl turned bright red.

"I-I-I can!"

"Then why don't you, eh?" Sicily wrung her fingers together, turning redder with embarrassment and shyness still.

"I… I'm r-r-really trying to…"

"Tch. I shouldn't have talked to you. You're just a girl."

"Wh-What's wrong with that?" Sicily's voice had taken a slightly stronger tone.

"Girls are weak, aren't they?" The girl turned bright red.

"No, we aren't!" she said rather suddenly. "I am a girl. And I'm not weak! I'm a… a…" It took her a second to remember the word she was taught. "A Nation!" The boy began laughing. "What's so funny?!"

"You're a Nation?" he asked. Sicily nodded. "I find that hard to believe." Sicily turned red.

"Why? You don't know what a Nation looks like!"

"I'm a Nation, too." Sicily clamped her mouth shut. She sighed, and brushed some of her hair out of her face. "And I doubt that a girl could be a Nation."

"Hey! That wasn't very nice! I'm sure there were some girls like me!" The boy laughed again. Sicily turned redder. She had been told of a few girls that were Nations as well. She had never seen them.

Sicily looked over at the boy again. Maybe this was her chance to be brave a little? That God was testing her? She sighed and walked a little closer to him.

"I didn't mean to sound so weak…" she said. "My name is-" Before Sicily could say anymore, her foot was caught on a nearby tree root that had become uprooted. She fell face first into the boy, which made him lose his balance. Both Sicily and the boy went rolling down the hill.

Sicily closed her eyes tightly as she rolled down. Eventually, she came to a stop at the bottom. Sicily laid on the ground for a second. She heard footsteps from behind her. Before she could even get up, someone latched their hand onto hers and pulled her to her feet. It was Italy. He had also pulled the other boy to his feet as well.

"Ve, are you alright?" He asked. Sicily nodded.

"Does it look like I'm alright?!" the boy said. "I just was pushed down-"

"I didn't mean to push you... I just fell..."

"No, you didn't! You did that on purpose!"

"Please don't fight!" cried out Italy. Brothers and sisters are supposed to love each other!" The boy and Sicily froze.

"What?" asked the boy. Italy nodded. "I only have one brother. Not a sister."

"Veneziano?" Sicily asked.

"I was going to tell you," Italy said. "But I could never find you both in the right time and place."

"You avoided it," muttered the boy Sicily now knew was her other brother. Italy laughed nervously. Sicily smiled a bit.

"I think that having more than one brother will be a good thing," she said. She turned to the boy. "My name is Sicily." The boy didn't say anything. "Do you have name?"

"Of course I do," he said finally. "Romano. And I don't want an idiota sorellina." Romano began walking away. Sicily waved to Italy before following after him.

She finally caught up with Romano when the elder looked back.

"Quit following me," he said. Sicily shook her head.

"Your my brother," said the younger.

"What's your point?"

"I wanna know more about you! I've never met you before and-" Romano cut Sicily off before she could continue.

"I wanted you to talk before, but now can you just be quiet?!" Sicily nodded. Romano walked away once more, prompting his sister to follow after.

"Quit following me!"

"No!" Sicily laughed before following. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all...