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Confrontation: RomanoXOC

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Years had passed since World War II. Lovino had not seen his friend and fellow representation – Annetta Rossi in years. She was the human representation of Molise. He missed her brown hair, wondering if she had kept it at shoulder length since the last he saw her or if she grew it out or cut it. Her brown eyes would twinkle from behind her glasses. She would blush so cutely too. He loved getting her flustered because she would blush so much, but then she would start to cry and yell at him. It was part of the reason why he hadn't spoken to her in a few decades. He had crossed a line. He had forgotten what he had said to hurt her but it was bad enough so that she avoided all contact with him.

A pretty young girl with sea blue eyes, smiled up at him, dimples showing. He had gone to the market. He enjoyed being among his people the most. But he found himself in Anna's neighborhood – one in Molise. Causally the little girl stepped away from her mother and stopped in front of him. She looked at him like he was someone she had known for a long time, someone she could trust. He frowned. Children weren't supposed to trust strangers this easily. The times were dangerous. Feliciano had warned him about this and then he had his own reports of kids who was kidnapped a few years back and murdered because they had fallen for a stranger's lies about helping him find his lost dog or were tempted by treats and candies. People were sick in this era.

"Ciao bella," he greeted.

His surprise grew as she hopped onto the back end of his cart, as carelessly as America would run his mouth at the world meetings. She clung to it as he pushed it along, allowing her to catch a free ride. She kept smiling at him, even as he rolled to a stop. He didn't want her to get too far from her mother just in case one of those sick people were around, wanting to hurt a little girl like her – like in the police reports. Even the mafia was unforgiving to children. They didn't care who they hurt so long as they were safe from police influences and free to do their dirty business with guns, drugs and sex. He frowned deeply. Perhaps he should have a word with the girl's mother once he reunited the two of them. It did not do for little girls to trust strangers.

"Hi! I'm Gabriella!" she told him, "What's yours?"

"I'm-a Lovino."

Gabriella giggled, holding a hand over her mouth to mask the sound, though it didn't help much. He noticed the accent that she had. She was American. Did she suppose that everyone spoke English? Perhaps she did. Little kids believed anything when they were young. There was a huge news report a few weeks ago that England had pushed to be aired because of a little girl who had been kidnapped – one of his civilians in a foreign country. It made tensions between the nations when children were involved. Nations often tended to have soft spots for children. Lovino had no idea why but little kids always managed to worm their way under his skin and get him to like them, though he would never show it or admit it.

"That's a funny name…"

"I suppose it-a might be," he admitted.

Lovino frowned and now that he thought about it, to an American girl like Gabriella it would sound odd because it was foreign, even to her. If he had been with Feliciano he wouldn't have given the girl the time of day because the other Italian would have been doting on her the moment he saw her. It was part of the reason he didn't spend time with his brother. People normally paid more attention to the nicer of the two Italians. He stepped around his cart and knelt down so they were at eye level. She looked up at him, tilting her head. Her red curls bounced and shone in the artificial lights of the store. She reached up and tugged on his curl. His eyes widened and he gently took her hand away before she could abuse the curl any longer. It would not do for her to harm his hair.

"You're hair's really cool!" she told him.

"Grazi, Gabriella," he said.

He couldn't help but laugh, which was really just a chuckle from him but the girl beamed brightly anyways. She was definitely an American girl because she took too much after her nation – far too happy and naïve. What were parents thinking anymore? He realized she was waiting for a compliment in return. 'Girls like it a lot when you compliment them,' Anna's voice rang in his ears. Did that meant it applied to little girls too? He may as well try. Plus, it was kind of nice to have someone to talk to, not that he would ever tell anyone that. He would never say that aloud. He would rather shoot himself in the foot before he said something like that in front of anyone, like Spain or Italy.

"I think-a your dress is very nice."

Carefree giggles left her lips. She clapped her hands in delight. A small smile tugged on his lips. She span around in a circle to show it off to him. She wanted to show off her dress by allowing it to dress billow out around her, with the white material flowing. Suddenly, she stopped mid-turn and stared at him. Her innocent eyes were staring into eyes, as if trying to read something there that he wasn't sure whether or not he really wanted her noticing or not. She wasn't smiling anymore. Now she reached up and touched his face. He tensed under her touch. No one touched him, not with him acting positively on it.

"You have sad eyes."

He reared back in surprise. How had she known that he was sad? Little kids weren't supposed to be this perceptive. He wanted to push her away from him, get as far away from the girl as possible. She wasn't even one of his humans, so why should he care if she were kidnapped? Oh, right… She was in country and if something happened to her, America and his government officials would be swarming his country looking for her, like they did with every child that went missing in foreign countries and it would cause more animosity between the two countries. America was still sore about the court cases from a few years ago and the mafia… and quite a few other things really.

"You shouldn't be sad. I think you're pretty."

"It's-a not so simple."

"Well, if you don't tell nobody, then they can't help you out, can they?"

She stared at him with innocent confusion. She probably didn't know why things could be so complicated and why people like him would have problems talking about his feelings. Feelings were hard for adults to talk about their feelings. Children were much more perceptive than he gave them credit for. They seemed to realize things better than adults did. Kids weren't afraid to say things either. They would be blunt and cruel if they wanted to but sometimes it could be unintentional. Adults liked treading water and skating on thin ice when little kids would blurt out whatever it was that they were thinking at the time.

"A friend and-a I had an argument and I don't know how to make it better."

"Why don't you say sorry?" Gabriella asked.

"It's-a more complicated than-a that."

His surprise doubled when the little girl glared up at him. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward just a tad. He leaned back in surprise because of how she was scolding him – him! A being who was so old that he had seen people like her come and go hundreds of thousands of times. He didn't know whether or not to be insulted by this girl or not, but he decided not to say anything because he was the elder in the situation. He sighed to himself. He ran a hand through his hair, being mindful of his curl.

"Nu-uh!" she argued vehemently, "If you did something bad you should say sorry!"

He opened his mouth to argue once again but realized he was arguing with someone who looked no older than six. She was young and stubborn, like many humans were, even out of their childhood years. He was hundreds of years old. He was supposed to be the adult in the situation and yet he was sitting there pouting like a child that had been told they couldn't have cookies before bed. Her way was right in her mind and there was no reasoning with it. She was right. He was wrong. Lovino just had to deal with it. Or at least in the little girl's mind he was wrong, so he would leave the conversation knowing he was right.

"So how do you make up with some body?" Gabriella asked.

Lovino was at a loss for words. How was he supposed to know how to make up with someone? Women were complicated creatures that he could perhaps know for a million years but never understand. Annie was no different just because she was a representation of Molise. Besides, people normally apologized to him first. Italy apologizes first when they argue. Spain is the first to break when it came to stubborn streaks. Even Germany knew better than to argue with him. So why was it that a little girl could call him out on it? Oh, right. She was one of America's people. That must have had something to do with it.

"I… Don't know…" Lovino said.

"You hug and make up, silly!"

"Whatever," Lovino said.

She giggled again. He doesn't hug people. Feliciano of all people knew that, because the hug therapy just went so well after all. He had to resist rolling his eyes in front of the little girl. And here the other nations thought he wasn't good with kids. Ha! He was good with kids after all! It wasn't that hard… Unless he had to actually take care of them. He was just as clueless as other nations were when it came to raising children, seeing as none of the nations actually got to unless they just happened to find another nation when they were in their infancy and even then, the 'baby' nation ended up being treated poorly.

"You talk funny…" she laughed, "Will you be my friend?"

"Do what you want."

She smiled, glad because of his easy acceptance of her friendship. She acted as if it had made her day. Lovino shrugged. Humans were weird. Human children were even stranger than the adults were because they had hyper moments, overactive imaginations and were extraordinarily whiney… Wait, that sounded like a few nations he knew. He shook his head. Funny thing about friendships was that you could swear your undying loyalty to someone but then never meet that person again. Children at parks would become 'best friends' in a matter of hours but then never see each other but they still remember each other.

"Gabriella? Gabriella!"

A woman's voice bubbled over the crowd with an edge of hysterical fear to it. The last thing Lovino wanted was for the woman to call the police and for the police to try to arrest him until he pulled his nation rank over their head. It would just be bad for the government entirely. Lovino looked over his shoulder, finding a panicking woman hunting manically through people for the girl in front of him. He turned back to Gabriella. She was searching as well, trying to find the owner of the voice. She had an apprehensive look on her face. She knew she was going to be in trouble for wandering away from her mom again.

"C'mon, Gabriella. Let's-a find your mother."

She smiled and clung to his cart as he turned it around. He walked towards the frantic woman. The sooner he got the girl to her mom, the sooner he could go back to his shopping, forgetting everything she had said, eating tomatoes on his couch as he watched television, maybe even popping in America's version of the Godfather, finding everything wrong with the movie and then calling America to complain about how he portrayed the Mafia… Oh wait, he did that… Three time already. As soon as she saw her mother, Gabriella slipped away from him, yelling words through the crowd. He smiled moved to turn his cart around when a gentle weight landed on his back. He looked down, grinning when he saw the red hair.

"Gabriella?"

"I just wanted to say bye- bye."

"All right then, goodbye Gabriella," her mother said.

Gabriella hugged him tightly. He stiffened, uncertain of what to do. She was very affectionate. He wasn't used to this level of affection unless it came from his brother or Spain. Even then he normally pushed the two off him and cursed them out. He couldn't curse her out. She was a little kid. She would be 'emotionally traumatized' and Italy might start trying his hug therapy again. Lovino shivered at the thought. It took years to get Italy to stop that. Even now he still tried it every now and then to cure his brother of his ill temper. It didn't work, but really, Lovino liked the hugs. He would just not say it aloud. He was supposed to be tough so he put on an act to fool the other nations but he wasn't too sure he did that well.

"Don't be sad. Go say sorry and you'll smile again."

"Gabriella, don't annoy him."

Lovino looked over his shoulder to see a woman who looked exactly like Gabriella. He supposed that this was her mother. She was plain yet attractive in an odd sort of way. Lovino was used to attractive women being around him. Italy was the country of lovers, after all. She had the same bouncy red hair as her daughter. She smiled at him sheepishly as she pulled her daughter away, but she seemed a little more relaxed, perhaps it was because she got her daughter back and because she had found someone who could speak English just like she could because her accent was obvious even from the one sentence she had spoken.

"I'm sorry, sir," the woman said sheepishly.

"It's-a fine. She was-a giving me advice."

"That's odd… She's only ever done that for family."

Lovino chuckled at the thought of Gabriella walking up to strangers and giving them advice. He was glad that she didn't. A part of him worried because strangers were not always as nice as the random little girls could be, though he would never say it aloud. She was a sweet little girl. He wouldn't have wanted something bad to happen to her. He bowed his head as a form of farewell. He still had shopping to do and being an impromptu babysitter had put his trip back at least a half an hour. He had to get the good tomatoes before the little old ladies got at them. They did love to squeeze the plants until they bruised.

"I should go now," Lovino said, "Ciao, Gabriella. Ciao bella."

"Ciao, Lovino!"

"Thank you for finding my daughter."

Lovino nodded. He was used to it by now, at least when helping tourists. America's tourists were the worst, so rude, acting as if everyone spoke English. It wasn't his fault they got robbed because they made easy targets or were extraordinarily gullible. They needed to learn that not everyone was to be trusted in foreign countries. Even in your home country it wasn't always safe. If he wasn't then humans would have been completely lost without him. He blinked in surprise when she fixed him with the same gaze as her daughter gave him just moments before. It was plain to see where Gabriella had gotten the look from.

"You know, you have to make your own happiness. Give life a shot."

She walked away before Lovino could say anything. Something inside him stirred and longed for something he had long forgotten. Maybe he should go give Annie a visit… She would like to see him after this long, right? He sure hoped so because he was about to do something on the stupidity level that he thought that only Spain and his stupid friends France and Prussia could reach. He was going to try to apologize to a woman. The very prospect made him nervous. Why had they been fighting in the first place? He honestly didn't remember.
This is a request by :iconokamiluver1:

Character: Romano/ Lovino Vargas
Prompt: Market, use of human names, Molise's human name is Annetta Rossi
Type: OC story

This is part one of a two part commission.

Here's chapter two: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 kita-kudai
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LoverCandy's avatar
i love this i can't wait for part 2 >w<