Some short, random Prumano that I wrote while I was bored.

FOUR IN THE MORNING

Romano woke up with a feeling of unease in his stomach. He blinked in the dark and fumbled for his phone to check the time. The light of the screen forced him to squint his eyes so that he almost couldn't make out the digital numbers. Damn. It should have been illegal to be up at this time of the night... morning... whatever the hell it was.

With an angry huff, he tossed his phone on the bedside table and fell on his back on the bed. He knew exactly why he had woken up, and it was goddamn stupid.

Normally, he was able to sleep through anything. Veneziano could blow up the kitchen, and it wouldn't interrupt Romano's afternoon nap. He didn't even mind Prussia's ungodly snoring, though he used every chance to complain about it and rub it to his face. That was why it was so idiotic that he always woke up when it got too silent.

He reached out and groped at the space by his side. Empty. Just as expected.

He sighed and tried to extinguish the nasty doubt that always began to nibble at his insides when he discovered that the spot where Prussia was supposed to be was vacant. He hated feeling that way. There was no reason to. Prussia had either gone to the bathroom or the kitchen to grab something to eat because the bastard's appetite was endless.

Nevertheless, it made Romano sick to wake up like this in the middle of the night. Even if he was alone in bed only for a handful of moments, they were enough to make him wonder what would happen if Prussia didn't come back one night, if he hadn't just got out of bed for a few minutes but was truly gone.

Romano didn't like talking about it, but he was afraid that Prussia would simply disappear one day. There were so many mysteries about what it meant to be a nation, where they came from, what happened to them when they were no longer needed that it was impossible to guess what would happen and when. Maybe Prussia would be there forever, or maybe he'd go away one day, like Grandpa Rome.

Prussia had promised him he wouldn't, but Romano knew from experience that he always said everything was fine when it very much wasn't. He was sure that if Prussia were dying, he'd be selfish enough to keep it a secret for as long as he could so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. He wouldn't spare a single thought to what it would be like for everyone who had to stay behind.

Romano didn't know what he'd do if there ever was a day when Prussia would be gone for good. He was loud, obnoxious, selfish and often irritating, but he had wormed his way into his heart. They fought a lot, but strangely enough, Romano didn't mind that. It had forced them both to learn how to apologize every once in a while.

Romano hadn't been there when Grandpa Rome had disappeared, so he didn't know what the symptoms were. He often found himself wondering what it was that still kept Prussia alive. He had no land to his name, but there were people who identified as East Germans. His old knights still existed and were now a Catholic order in Vienna. Or maybe it was just a mixture of self-delusion and willpower.

Some time after they had got together, Germany had pulled Romano aside and told him that Prussia had started acting a little more productive than before. He had probably meant his words as encouraging, but Romano had nearly knocked out his teeth. He hated the idea that Prussia might be alive because of him, just because he loved him. It wasn't healthy. He wanted him to be stable and happy whether they were together or not. If the stupid loser ever dared to suggest that he wouldn't be, Romano would first give him the dressing-down of a century and then make him pick up a new hobby.

He heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs, so he swiftly closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep. The door was opened, and almost right after, Prussia hit his foot on something in the dark. He let out a string of profanities that was muffled by his hand on his mouth. Romano was tempted to snort. The idiot was trying not to wake him up and had no idea how happy he was to hear him, to be reassured that he was coming back.

Prussia returned to bed. Romano waited a minute and let him settle down and then rolled closer so that he was half sprawled all over him. Prussia was always complaining that he took over the whole bed and shoved his limbs everywhere. At times like this it was the perfect excuse for attaching himself to him without having to explain his sudden need for affection.

"Oh, great," Prussia muttered. For a while, he tried to push Romano back on his side of the bed, but he quickly gave up. He probably thought it wasn't worth the trouble to wake him up and get chewed out, but part of Romano wanted to believe that he liked sleeping this close as much as he did.

It crossed his mind that he should tell Prussia more often how happy he was to have him. He could do nothing to stop him from dying if it ever came to it, but he could make sure that Prussia knew how important he was to him, every damn day.

Yeah, he'd do that, Romano decided as his mind began to drift back to sleep. In the morning he'd figure out how he was going to make embarrassing crap like that come out of his mouth, but for now he was content to bury his nose in the crook of Prussia's neck and know that he was there.