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Lovino woke up, disoriented but otherwise fine. He gazed at the ceiling for a while before it occurred to him how unfamiliar it is. His eyes wandered to other parts of the room, from the frilly, lace curtains - open to let in the sunlight, to light-colored wooden furnitures. He slowly sat up to survey the room some more when his hand brushed on something warm and smooth under the sheets.
He whipped his head to the bed and reddened upon seeing a beautiful woman sleeping beside him. Her auburn curls lay scattered about on her pillow in neat piles. There was one strand of gravity-defying, wayward curl that looked awfully familiar but he snapped out of it when he realized he was practically scrutinizing the girl like some French pervert.
His thoughts stuttered to an abrupt halt at the odd thought. Why French?
He shook his head and, although he would rather not do it, he shook the girl awake so that he could ask her some questions. However the little shaking didn’t even disturb her breathing. The girl was deeply asleep. So he shook her harder, trying not to grip her shoulder too tightly. Still the young woman continued to slumber on uninterrupted.
Lovino was fast losing his patience but he disliked harming women.On the other hand he needed to know who she was and how he brought him to this place. And the most important of all, why? He slapped her cheek lightly, all the while calling out, “Miss!” over and over. It was all futile.
Out of frustration he decided to roam her place, looking into rooms and checking for photographs, or anything really that could help him identify her, give him clues. But once he opened the door leading to the occupied bedroom, it made him realize one strange thing. He had opened every door he could see but none of those doors led outside. None of them were the front door, nor the back. Feeling a sense of dread, he tried all the windows and was unable to open them. He tried breaking the ones in the living room using a chair but the glass didn’t even crack.
All the views showed him the garden outside, no matter which window he peered through. No sight of buildings or even roads from afar. In his blind panic he grabbed the sleeping girl roughly about the upper arms and began shaking her furiously.
“Wake up! Wake up, woman! Who are you?” Where are we? Why am I here? I have to go back. Go back to - “ He could not finish his words and dropped the girl unceremoniously on the bed. He could not remember. He felt like he had to return urgently, back to some place, back to someone. But to where and who drew only a blank in his mind. All he could recall was that he is called Lovino.
“Lovi~!”
His eyes snapped back to the unconscious woman, thinking that she had awoken and called his name so familiarly. However she was still unconscious, not a muscle out of place since he let go of her. He had come to suspect that he was trapped in this place. With a measure of guilt, he also acknowledged that she may also be trapped, though hers is of an entirely different prison. No matter how much he tries, she will not awaken.
Before he knew it, time passed and he developed a routine. He continued to sleep beside the unknown woman, feeling that he shouldn’t leave her alone. The pantry never runs out of food, the item used somehow would always be mysteriously replenished. The sun outside the window would always rise and set like normal but the moon would always be full and bright at night.
As for the woman, though it embarrasses him greatly, he would wipe her down and change her into the dresses he would find in the chest at the foot of the bed. There would always be one dress and a set of undergarments inside it. And they would change everyday. Their dirty laundry would also vanish. As for himself, he would also find comfortable trousers inside the chest as well as light, button-down tops.
Not everything was provided for him, however. He had to wash the dishes himself and clean the whole house. He couldn’t remember but doing chores would sour his mood to the point of breaking a broom in half. Not like it mattered. The broom would be as if it were never broken the next day.
Weeks, months, he didn’t bother keeping track of the passing days. The loneliness began to consume him. During his more gloomy times he would find himself sitting beside the sleeping girl to gaze upon her serene face. It was becoming hard to keep temptation at bay. He would feel the intense longing to look into the eyes of the woman. How ironic that he was beginning to fall for a woman to whom he has not even spoken to yet. He couldn’t fathom it but he couldn’t help wanting to graze those lips with his own. It was getting difficult to remain innocent whenever he had to clean her.
Some days he would doze by her side, only to awaken upon hearing a phantom voice of a woman calling his shortened name.
“Bella,” he called the woman beside him, caressing her face in an attempt to comfort himself as he would be near to tears. Bella, indeed she is beautiful.
Then one day something out of the ordinary happened. The view outside the window that usually showed excellent weather during the day, became overcast with an expanse of dark clouds. Pretty soon rain began to pour heavily. The silence was shattered by the sheet of rain splashing down from the heavens. Thunder and lightning would vibrate through the window glass, charging the atmosphere, affecting his state of being.
Lovino took up his position beside the sleeping angel, and as he was affected by the strange change in weather, he began to caress her. From her hair to her cheeks to her tempting lips. And before he knew it, he was doing more than grazing those unresponsive lips with his own. He trailed kisses along her jaw and down her inviting neck. Amid the sound of rain and thunder, he had climbed into bed and pulled her dress open. He knew what he was doing was wrong. But he couldn’t seem to make himself stop.
He nibbled her collarbone and with one hand dancing to a familiar tune, instinctively located that one errant curl on her head and began to stroke it. His imagination ran rampant that he could almost hear how this beautiful woman would moan in pleasure.
He could just imagine her moans getting breathier and louder as he continued his ministrations. One particularly loud one caught him unaware and then he realized that the body beneath him was panting deeply. He could feel hands clutching at his back and head. The hand on his head moved to stroke his curl and a moan of pleasure burst out of his mouth.
“Don’t stop,” she whimpered in his tongue, the lyrical Italian language. His eyes snapped to her face which was flushed and covered in a light sheen of sweat. And her eyes were mesmerizing as it gazed deep into his soul.
“Lovi…” she called his nickname tenderly, familiarly.
And everything faded into black.
“Lovi…”
“Lovi…!”
“Lovino!!”
“FRATELLO!!”
Heavy lids slowly opened, eyes slighted by the bright lighting of the room. “Somebody lower the blinds and turn off the lights.”
“Hng…” Lovino muttered as he let his eyes adjust to the now dimmed room. His sight landed on a beautiful woman beside him looking really worried.
“Fratello?” her voice trembled as she called out to him.
“...Sorella,” he managed in a raspy voice and then he suddenly found himself with an armful of curly hair tied in a ponytail as she sobbed herself silly on his chest. Perplexed, he could do nothing as he was unable to move yet. He let his eyes wander and noticed Ludwig - Germany, standing by the windows.
“Water,” he croaked towards the blond nation who thankfully helped him sit up first before letting him sip the refreshing liquid. “What happened to me?”
Alice’s sobbing had subsided, reduced to sniffles as she answered. “You were with me when you suddenly fell over. Severe injuries started appearing on your body and then you fell into a coma. I thought you were going to disappear. I was so scared. I wouldn’t be Italy without you. I can’t lose you, Lovi-!”
Lovi didn’t know what to say. Tensions were high in South Italy but even he couldn’t have predicted that the situation would escalate so rapidly to the point that his own existence would be threatened. And to reduce his strong-willed sister into a sobbing mess told him how nearly he could have been forcefully separated from her forevermore.
Germany excused himself from the room, sensing that the two Italy’s needed to be left alone together to sort these things out.
“Alice, stop your sniffling. You’re being an idiot, crying over nothing when you can perfectly see that I’m fine,” Lovino snapped in his own fashion of speaking.
“Sorry,” she sniffled as she dried her tears and gave him a shaky smile.
“Tch! Come here,” he ordered and she happily clambered into the bed to snuggle against him. He pressed tiny kisses all over her face and pecked her lips, earning a giggle from his beloved.
“I’ll never leave you,” he swore. No matter what happens, he will never leave her side. And he will never let her leave him, not for any reason. Because they are both one Italy. Because they are family. Because they are each others’. And because they love.
'That's why I'll always come back to you.'