Inside Italia

Romano is insecure.

Sicily feels like he's living under everyone's shadow.

Sardinia is torn between two personalities.

Vaticano is still living in the Renaissance.

San Marino can't let go of old grudges.

Seborga can't do anything to stop his brother's fighting.

Veneziano blames himself for all of it.

Beneath the veil, the Italian family really isn't as happy and perfect as it seems...

=X=

Inside Italia
Vaticano - Hidebound

~~::.::~~

"Piero! Lovino!"

Piero looked back at the call of his older brother, and beside him his twin brother did the same in perfect synchronisation. Santo was running over to them, his arm waving frantically to gain their attention.

"Si, fratello?" Lovino asked as Santo stopped in front of them, panting slightly. The two waited patiently for an answer while the twelve-year-old regained his breath.

"Nonno wants you to come back to the house, it's getting late and we'll be eating soon." He explained eventually, gesturing back to the way he'd come. The younger boys whined unhappily.

"But Lovino was just about to show me a nice little place further in Roma." Piero complained, but Santo remained stern.

"You know Nonno doesn't like you wandering too far without him." He reprimanded.

"I know Roma well though!" Lovino argued back. "It'll only take a minute, I can find my way back fine!"

"Si!" Piero agreed. His brother had told him that he knew Roma as if it was part of his own body, like he'd always known it and had walked every street and plaza. Even their grandfather was starting to refer to him as his 'little Roman', or 'Romano' as the little triplets shortened it. "Per favore, Santo."

Santo looked at them for a moment, then sighed.

"Va bene. But be back at the house in 10 minutes, understand?" he told them, and the twins nodded eagerly. With a small smile, Santo turned and started to navigate his way back to their grandfather's house, and Lovino turned to Piero with a grin.

"Ready to go?" he asked, gesturing in the direction they had been heading. Piero nodded eagerly, as always excited to see a new place in the city that his brother thought was special. Lovino grabbed his brother's hand and started running, leading him through the crowded streets, and the sound of their laughter filled Piero's ears.

~~::.::~~

Vaticano groans as he awakes, carefully sitting himself up and stretching to coax the heaviness of sleep from his muscles. Recently he's been having more dreams of memories from his childhood – a lot of them involving Romano, and often the rest of his family too. He sighs as he stands up and crosses his room, intending to change into his robes for the day but pausing as he hears angry muttering outside his room. The voice, which he recognises eventually as San Marino's, is cursing up a storm to rival even Romano's foul mouth. He pulls open the door, glaring slightly at his older brother.

"San Marino, I expect you to know better than having a foul-mouthed tantrum." He reprimands. "What has got you so worked up, and so early in the morning? If you're not careful, you'll wake Sardinia." Vaticano gestures over to the next door, the room that Sardinia used to share with her triplet brothers.

Santo gives a low, furious curse under his breath. "No I won't. She's not here."

"What?" Vaticano frowns slightly, stepping further out of his room, looking over to the door of Sardinia's room and back at his brother. "What do you mean she's not here?"

"Look at this." Santo thrusts a note into his hands with another quiet curse. Vaticano reads it over a few times, then hands it back, and runs a hand through his hair. The household is down to five, with one sister run away and one brother captive, plus another brother who comes and goes daily.

"So she's gone to France's house..." he mutters, grimacing. Santo is once again growling annoyances, his hands balling into fists in agitation. France is one of the nations the eldest brother hates the most, along with Spain, and Vaticano can't claim to have any sort of liking for him either.

"We need to get her back. Both of them. We can't let them be taken from us!" San Marino growls urgently, and Vaticano recognises his desperate need to keep his siblings together. He sighs – it's been months since any of them saw Romano, almost a month since Sicily started disappearing every day, since Veneziano spent half of his days cuddling with Seborga and half locked up in his room, and throughout all of this San Marino has been agitated and on edge.

"Of course we must, San Marino." Vaticano agrees calmly. "And we will. But first, calm yourself – we need to tell our fratellini. No doubt this is going to upset Seborga, and Veneziano."

"Ugh, cazzo. Cazzo, cazzo, cazzo!" San Marino runs a hand roughly through his hair and clenches his fists again. "Everything's going to hell."

"San Marino!" Vaticano hisses, shooting his brother a sharp glare. "Watch your mouth!"

"Dispiace, Piero." He mutters.

"You're all hopeless." Vaticano scolds him. "You're all foul-mouthed and blasphemous."

"We could be worse." Santo shrugs, and Vaticano is somewhat affronted at how lightly he seems to take it. Then again, none of his brothers are at level with him on his opinions on religion and the degree of seriousness it should be taken at. In recent years especially they have all loosened up far more than Vaticano approves of.

"Let's just hope you haven't woken the others." He mutters lowly, retreating back into his room. "You will have to figure out a way to tell them. I'm going to go and get ready, I'm going down to church."

He doesn't wait to see if Santo is going to make any sort of retort, instead shutting his door and going to get ready for Mass.

~~::.::~~

Piero smiled gently as he let his eyes take in all the familiar, beautiful details of his church, St Peter's Basilica. He loved coming to the church, its beautiful design breathtaking as it always had been, always leaving him in awe, and the wonderful feeling of peace he always left with filling his chest. He remembered the first time he'd stepped foot inside the church. He had been with Santo and his brother, and the older boy was showing them around Roma. It was after that visit he'd been given his name – Piero, like Petrus, the name given to the disciple Simon by Jesus.

Mass had finished and most of the crowd had dissipated out onto the streets, but Piero stayed behind, just for a while. He always felt most comfortable in the quiet of this church, like it was a second home for him. Being able to sit in the pews amongst the people of Roma – or, this small section of it – and listen to the readings of the scripture was a haven to him, and it didn't matter to him that he knew it all by heart already, because hearing the words spoken by another, feeling the faith he shared with those who surrounded him, that was what made his heart swell.

The angle of the colours adorning the floor from the stained glass windows had been subtly changing throughout the time Piero had been sat in the church, and now he recognised that they were signalling to him that it was getting to the time he'd have to leave. With a last quiet prayer and a final glance back, Piero left the cool, quiet confines of St Peter's Basilica and stepped out onto the hot, busy streets of Roma.

~~::.::~~

"Pontificio!"

Stato Pontificio turned to see 17-year-old Romano waving at him as he emerged through the crowds.

"You should really call me Piero, Romano." He noted as his brother approached him. Romano gave him a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah, and you should call me Lovino or Naples. But who knows how many Pieros there could be in this crowd? There's only one Stato Pontificio." He replied offhandedly. He tugged on Piero's sleeve to start him walking, and the two quickly fell into step with each other.

"So, your new church looks like it's going well." Romano eventually said. "Pity they had to knock down the old one and rebuild it. You loved that place."

"Si." Piero nodded. "But it was falling into disrepair. This new church will stand for longer. It's still mi Basilica di San Pietro, just newer."

"Hmm." Romano nodded absentmindedly. "How's Roma been doing? You spend more time in her than I do."

Piero looked over at his brother. Lovino was looking wistfully around at the streets and plazas, almost longingly. Despite representing the Kingdom of Naples, he wasn't often in his own country for very long. He stayed at Spain's house, as he had to, but sometimes he had to come back to check on his country, although Spain wasn't often very far behind. It had been a long time since the twin brothers had walked through the streets of Roma together.

"She's doing well. Although, recently, there has been a slight increase in trials..." Piero's eyes wandered over to a far corner of the plaza they were crossing through, where a group of condemned men waited in front of a row of nooses. Romano's gaze followed his, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Really? So crime is going up..." he muttered.

"Not so much crimes like thieving and murder." Stato Pontificio grimaced slightly as he continued. "There's been a rise of citizens accused of sodomy."

Lovino stopped in his tracks, blinking and staring over again at the men waiting to meet their fate.

"It's a disgrace really, to see how many men have turned from the law of the Lord Our God and commit such horrendous acts with other men."

"S-si..." Lovino agreed under his breath. Piero looked closely at him. His brother was still staring across the plaza, his eyes widened, his lips parted and turned down slightly in despair or worry. The emotion that shimmered over his eyes was one Piero could not name, but it was soon lost as he closed his eyes and shook his head, turning back to his brother. "To think that people would go against our Lord in such a way..."

"If they turn away from God and choose to damn themselves to Hell instead, what more can we do if they do not ask for forgiveness?" Piero sighed. "Perhaps if they truly repent, then they will be forgiven. But only God can do that."

"Si." Lovino replied quickly, turning to continue walking. Piero followed, barely noticing how his brother had sped up their pace to try and cross the plaza as fast as possible. Silence fell over them for the rest of their journey back to their Nonno's old house, and Piero caught Romano flinching as they heard the hatches open and the rope of the nooses tighten, and the cheer of the crowd at the execution.

~~::.::~~

When he looks back, Vaticano can identify that emotion that flickered across Romano's face. Fear, guilt and hurt, all mixed together and barely concealed. How had he not noticed that at first? How Romano had become nervous and then defensive, how he always had whenever that subject had come up ever since, how since that time Romano became colder and colder towards him. Yet he'd never made the link, not for a long time.

This is the same plaza, but now it's so different. The buildings surrounding it look older, like they are bound to do after a few centuries, and there are modern additions. The weather is far colder – it's approaching winter now, so the sun is not quite as hot as it is mid-summer. The people look different, talk different, act different to how Vaticano remembers they used to.

He sees two young men, perhaps in their mid twenties, talking together and laughing as they walk. One reaches over and takes the other's hand, entwining their fingers. He smiles as his companion mutters something to him, shaking his head, before he leans over and places a quick kiss to his temple. The other man chuckles and manages to quickly capture his lips with his own.

Vaticano scowls deeply and looks away. To do something so unnatural and wrong so publicly and shamelessly was a disgrace. It went against the word of God. Yet these people will not be punished for it, but instead encouraged and allowed to continue.

There has been so much change in recent years. He thinks it must have started when the Papal States had slowly started to disappear after 1861 and the Italian Unification. During the years from 1870 until 1929 Vaticano had been locked up in the Vatican with the Pope, and he had never left the Basilica until the Lateran Treaty had once again made him his own independent state, and even before and after then he spent most of his time in his own city. For the longest time he had shut himself away from his brothers and the rest of the world inside the walls of his Church, his safe haven and home.

And now, when he walks the streets of the city he's known since he and his brother were first born, this city that had always been their home, their Roma, he doesn't recognise it. He doesn't recognise the world. It seems like there's a huge gap between where he is and where everyone else is – like he's so far from the place he knows and he's been thrown somewhere different and foreign, where what he thinks is right or wrong is the polar opposite from everyone else's opinion.

It's a different world now, and it's not Vaticano's world.

~~::.::~~

Piero watched as Lovino chased a giggling Giovanni. Leonardo was curled up with Valeria, and flinched every time the pair ran past them, making his sister shout after them to be careful. Feliciano was helping tiny Ponzio paint, which the younger child was delighting in, even if he was getting a bit messy.

"Lovino, you should know already you shouldn't run around inside. Feliciano, try and make sure Ponzio doesn't get too much paint all over himself." Santo reprimanded gently as he walked in, but he was smiling all the same.

"Veh~, dispiace Santo." Feliciano apologised, and started wiping off Ponzio's hands with a piece of cloth. Ponzio reached out and touched Feliciano's face with one paint-covered hand while the other was being cleaned, giggling at the hand-print left on his older brother's face.

"You're a spoil-sport Santo!" Lovino called, sticking out his tongue as he caught Giovanni and lifted him up to stop him running, though his legs wheeled in the air for a few moments.

"Si! Spoilsport Santo." Giovanni repeated, copying Lovino and sticking out his tongue. Piero shook his head at his little brother's antics.

"Now, don't be naughty Gio. Nonno's almost finished with the pasta, so we'll be going to eat soon, and you don't want to have to miss out, do you?" Santo, being the oldest, was very much used to dealing with the little children, and Piero was starting to learn too.

"Noo~ that'd be horrible, Gio!" Feliciano cried. "Nonno's pasta is the best!"

"Nonno wouldn't do that." Giovanni pouted, though his eyes held uncertainty. Piero stood to take him from Lovino's arms and set him down on the floor, and looked sternly but kindly down at him.

"You don't want to be naughty and find out though, do you?" he asked, and the little boy pouted a bit more and shook his head. Piero smiled and ruffled his hair. "Then behave for a while."

Giovanni muttered something under his breath quietly, but walked over to sit by Leonardo and Valeria, and was soon smiling happily again as he talked and played with his siblings. Lovino stood beside Piero, grinning.

"I remember when Santo used to do that to us." He said. Piero huffed, turning to look at Lovino with a raised eyebrow.

"To you, fratello." He corrected. Lovino rolled his eyes.

"Blah blah, I get it, Signor Perfetto." He teased back. Piero nudged him, and Lovino retaliated with a chuckle, before pausing for a moment. "I'm glad we came with Santo." He said eventually.

"Si." Piero agreed. "It's nice here, with Nonno and i nostri fratelli."

Lovino made a small noise of agreement then wrapped his arms around Piero's shoulders, smiling slightly. "After so long, who would have thought someone would take us in? Who would have thought we'd find others like us? Who would have thought we'd get to be part of a happy family? I certainly wouldn't have."

"But we do, mi gemello. We have Nonno, and Santo, and Feli, and the triplets, and Ponzio." Piero smiled over at him. "I'm happy here."

"Si. I am too." Lovino nodded. "Cosí molto felici."

From the kitchen, the call for dinner was heard. Santo scooped up little Ponzio, who was cooing 'pasta' in imitation of Feliciano. The triplets jumped up eagerly, Giovanni running ahead shouting "I've been good, Nonno, promessa!" even as Santo reminded him again about running. Lovino laughed and pulled on his brother's wrist.

"Come on Piero, I'll race you!" he grinned, and sped past Santo, who shouted again. Piero shook his head, laughed, and followed – his older brother was now crying exasperatedly to their Nonno in hopes he would help control the unruly brothers – easily catching up to Lovino and running beside him.

Piero prayed that maybe, they could stay like this forever.

~~::.::~~

The house was far quieter than Vaticano could ever remember it being before. Usually it would be loud with Seborga's playful shouts and Veneziano's happy laughs, Sicily's grumbling complaints and Sardinia's joking comebacks, his and Romano's stubborn arguing and San Marino's attempts to calm them all down. Now, he had no-one to argue with, Sicily wasn't here to complain, nor was Sardinia here to try and cheer him up, Seborga's seemingly boundless energy was subdued and Veneziano was near silent. San Marino had plenty to complain about, but today he didn't – he sat, sometimes scowling, but recently he'd put on a much softer expression, for their little brothers.

There hadn't always been this much anger or upset in the family. It had been a long time, but there had been better times; times when he was close to his twin, times when even Sicily had a perpetual, genuine smile on his face. Back before they had been fully fledged countries, when they were just Santo and Piero and Lovino, with little Feliciano and Giovanni and Valeria and Leonardo, and even the tiny Ponzio. When they would play in their Nonno Roma's huge house, and the biggest argument was about which type of pasta was the best (Piero had always stood by the capellini) or who should sleep where for their siesta.

Vaticano will never admit it aloud, but he misses the occasions when he and Romano would sit together, and he'd read the story of Joseph and his brothers, of Daniel and the lion's den, of David and Goliath, and Romano would listen intently, and in return he would get to see his brother's most favourite places in Rome. He and Romano had been near inseparable – and then, they had been separated.

Piero shakes himself to clear the unwanted nostalgia. What did he care for a brother who left him alone for hundreds of years and came back cold and hating? His God was always with him, and his God would love him for as long as he followed His rules. Piero keeps to that belief firmly as he always has.

The sudden sound of the doorbell breaks the silence, startling all four of the remaining brothers. Feliciano jumps up immediately.

"Oh, that's for me." He chirps, voice too high and face too nervous . "I'll be back for dinner, I promise."

"Feli!" Seborga cries unhappily, realising he's about to lose his favourite source of comfort. Veneziano pauses to stroke his hair and kiss the top of his head.

"I'll be back. Promessa." He says gently. Santo stands up to follow him out into the hall, and Vaticano watches.

"Who is it, Venezia?" Santo asks lowly. The younger brother has already edged into the hallway and is slipping away towards the door.

"Only Germany. Ciao, fratelli." And with that, Feliciano springs through the door and leaves. Santo storms over and opens the door again, but their brother and the German nation are already in the car and starting to drive off. Santo yells angrily after them.

Vaticano frowns. For Veneziano to be going off for days with Germany was not uncommon, and was becoming increasingly more frequent. His younger brother has always been close to the German – too close, Vaticano thinks, like Romano has always been too close to Spain. And Romano has been led astray, lured and tempted by the older Spanish nation, and lost himself in darkness and sin, and gotten himself in so deep he no longer wishes for a rescue, no longer thinks it is needed, no longer thinks he is wrong.

Was Veneziano wandering down that path, starting to become lost like his brother? It had happened before, but Vaticano was sure his brother recovered his senses after that.

"He's getting too close to that bastard." Santo growls as he re-enters the room, and Vaticano nods in agreement. Veneziano is getting too close to Germany.

Seborga is now hovering timidly, looking slightly lost. Santo, noticing this, quickly softens and swoops over to scoop up the youngest brother and carry him through to the kitchen so he can help make lunch for the three of them. Vaticano sighs heavily, and settles down to his scriptures.

At least the heavy silence was good for something.

Hopefully, Piero prays, things will not stay this way forever...

~~::.::~~

A/N: HA. HA.

FUCK.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

I'M SO SORRY. I'M SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOO SORRY! /millions and millions of apologies.

I got really stuck writing this chapter, trying to make Vaticano a good character that you could still feel for and empathise with and shit.

I actually really love Vaticano, he's slowly grown on me xD

I really hope no-one is offended by him, as I know he's bound to be a pretty controversial character. One of the whole points of his character is that he's still very stuck in the Renaissance mindset – religion was the law, homosexuality and such were horrendous sins, and he believes everything should be taken extremely seriously. So he's not meant to reflect modern Christians or their attitudes to things such as homosexuality – his views are views from hundreds of years ago.

Here's your extra info on him:

Vaticano: Vaticano appears about 22, and is Romano's identical twin brother. He is quiet, reserved and formal, but can be as mean as any of his brother's. When Romano, Sicily and Veneziano were taken away by Spain and Austria, Vaticano shut himself away with his Church, as a way of coping with separation from his twin, who he was very close to, and the rest of his family. This caused his alienation from the changes in the world and leaves him feeling lost in the modern world. His human name is Piero Vargas.

I need to write up some good, deep detailing for Vaticano. His story is quite sad, actually. For a few hundred years the only thing Romano and Vaticano had were each other, before San Marino found them and took them back with him to Rome, where they gained a happy family, which lasted until Rome died and Romano, as well as most of the rest of his family, were taken away, leaving him completely alone – something he had never had to experience before. Already being the representation of the growing Christian population, Vaticano turned to his faith to help and guide him, only to become so absorbed in it that he isolated himself.

See? It's sad. Poor little Vaticano.

I need to give a thank you to my dearest Mouse, who owns most of these OCs (apart from, ironically, Vaticano), and helped me finally get this chapter done. With the first version I got stuck and then I had exams and shit stressing me out, so it wasn't going very well, then she suggested the whole 'contrasting scenes' thing you see here, the 'how Vaticano remembers it/how it is now' structure, and without it I don't think I'd have managed to do this any time soon, so GRAZIE, CARA MIA~.

And I need to give an even BIGGER thank you, and lots of love love love, to my wonderful reviewers: el18m, Bluesoxrox, Mystic Dewdrop, MakenshiCrona and anon.

I'm so glad you all like mine and Mouse's OCs, we try very hard to make sure we flesh them out properly, and I hope I've succeeded in doing that with Vaticano too. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, I'm so desperately sorry for it taking so long, and for it being shorter than the previous two (ironic how Vaticano and Romano's chapters are the same length? xD) and I hope that next chapter won't take so long!

Reviews are so very much appreciated, and as you can see I have anon reviews turned on, BUT YA DON'T NEED TO BE SHY~~ ;D So I hope I get reviews so I know people haven't forgotten about this after the month or more I didn't update ;w;

Translations:

Roma – Rome (I use this to refer to the city, just in case I need to distinguish from Grandpa Rome)

Fratellini – Little brothers

Cazzo – Fuck

Stato Ponificio – Papal States

Signor Perfetto – Mr. Perfect

I nostri fratelli – Our brothers

Mi gemello – My twin

Cosí molto felici – So very happy

Promessa – Promise

Piero/Petrus – Peter (I used the Latin since the services at that time would be in Latin)

Capellini – 'Angel's Hair' pasta (I hope it's obvious why this is here xD)

And hopefully you know the other stuff because it's basic and it pops up all over Italy brother fics xD

Okay, ciao~!